Review of Body of Lies (2008) by Liam C — 21 Mar 2015

There isn't really anything awfully bad with this film but there isn't really anything that fantastic about it either. It does do some things that I haven't really seen done in this genre before; like one of the early shootout scenes, where they try to collect Intel that is being burned, I thought was pretty interesting and the use of surveillance footage I thought was pretty good but as a whole it never really adds up to a satisfying experience. The acting here really helps quite a lot, Leonardo DiCaprio does a good job with what he has. He apparently had a hand in developing the character, which I find somewhat odd, given that this is based off of a book, so he's changing the source and that his character is mostly a blank slate for most of the film, which might be the part he had a hand in, to give the character a bit of depth, or not, maybe he made him like he was on purpose to give him more of an arc, I don't know, all I'm saying is, it was a little odd. Mark Strong was excellent and once again I see him with hair, he always had a strong screen presence anyway, and given his name, that seems all the more fitting, but in this film any time he was on screen he had your undivided attention, he was just terrific. Russell Crowe was one of the really big bright spots in this and he really kept me interested, his absolute obnoxiousness and total lack of giving a damn about what anyone else thought was just funny to me but he also does care for his children and has all the likeable elements he gives to his characters, I wish he was in it a bit more, though. I think he needed to be the way he was just so it wasn't the standard boring guy-at-home-in-office role. Not really sure why he had to put on weight though, credit to him for taking this role seriously like all the rest but it just seemed to exist to be there for a few jokes but if it is how it was in the book, then it makes sense. He also kept looking at people with his head faced down with his eyes looking above his glasses and I liked that, it fit the character very well. The conflict between his character and Leo's character actually plays out very well and leads into one of the overall themes very nicely; the film had a number of themes and they were very good.

I'm not really sure what to say about the story though, it isn't really bad but nothing felt particularly subtle and it did get a bit muddled at points, there is a character that hates lying as well as characters lying to each other and there is a group at the end talking about lying and the film is called 'Body of Lies', which, okay, maybe I am being to harsh on because all films work to their title in some way. But there is a romance in the film and the film didn't allow it to be anything other than it was, a plot device. Now, you could argue that everything in a film is a plot device in some way, but what I mean is that, besides the two characters it involves as they did have chemistry with one another, it didn't feel very natural and was never really given any room to be anything else than it was, a set up for the finale of the film. Which I will admit, the last 30 minutes were pretty interesting because something happened to get things rolling and Leo's character actually started to think for himself. I did like how realistic the film was though, I really felt like I was there with the characters and that whatever actions they did really mattered and that everything had consequences; especially for some of the torture scenes, they made me want to look away at point because of how well they were filmed. The film also looks and sounds excellent with beautiful, gorgeous cinematography and smart sound editing with a good soundtrack. I heard complaints about the use of the surveillance footage but it was never used enough to the point where I thought people would have to make special mention of it, I thought it was used sparingly and smartly. The film ends with it and I think that was a pretty good way to wrap things up. I think if the film was edited a little better I think it would have helped it quite a bit but as it is, 'Body of Lies', does some things really well and others not so much, but I don't feel like I wasted my time or anything like that.