Body of Lies

Honestly, I didn’t really expect much from this movie. Of course, I expected that DiCaprio (played Roger Ferris) and Crowe (played Ed Hoffman) would give excellent performance, as always …. (probably biased, I know, but what can I say … I’m a fan. ). That said, first I thought that the movie would just be a typical CIA / terrorists / Middle Eastern movie, full of actions and heavily focuses on these two actors … a movie that would only deserve a viewing in my own little TV. But since I didn’t have anything better to do, I watched it anyway when it came to the cinema last week in Bali. (Fyi, some movies take ages to come to the cinemas here.)

Well, after watching it, I must say, it’s quite beyond my expectations. I enjoyed the movie very much! Not the best movie ever, but it’s one of the best CIA movies I’ve watched so far.

Here’s what I like about the movie: (spoiler alert)

• Leonardo DiCaprio – I just simply love him. ^^ His acting in this movie is probably not as good as in my favorite: “Catch Me If You Can”, but I think he still delivered an excellent performance. I like watching his expressions; how, for examples, he really looked uneasy when he had to lie to the Jordanian intelligence leader, and it made me smile watching the scenes where he wooed Aisha – a Middle Eastern nurse Ferris fell in love with – and tried to ask her out.

Hani Salaam

• Hani Salaam - thumbs up for the actor, Mark Strong, who played brilliantly, but I am especially intrigued by this Hani character. A smart and sleek  yet ruthless Jordanian intelligence leader who did what he had to do for his country. In the end, I think he outsmarted Ferris and Hoffman (both are CIA, fyi). 

• I think this movie is more socially and politically conscious than most others of the same genre. It offers a glance at how people could get involved in terrorism and how some Middle Easterns feel about this ongoing war in their country. Rather than blindly praising the CIA, the movie shows both the good and bad sides of an intelligence operation. Ferris is a CIA operative who really believed that what he was doing was really for the good of the country; he also formed some friendships with people he worked with in the Middle East and he respected the culture. Hoffman, on the other hand, seemed to be more detached and had a political agenda in mind. So, I guess, there are some moral values that we could get from this movie.

Now, what I don’t really like about this movie …. not much, actually. The movie focuses a little bit too much on the action and DiCaprio, but I wouldn’t complain. It also involves quite a bit of violence, including tortures, and foul languages, so if you’re a type of persons who really can’t watch those kinds of things, I advise you to stay away from this movie … although, you would miss a very good movie indeed.

So, overall … I really recommend you, especially DiCaprio’s fans, to watch this movie. Definitely worth your time!