Trim and elegant in narrow pinstripes, Salaam is crafty, charismatic, and sophisticated, with an odd but charming insistence on referring to male colleagues as вЂњmy dear.вЂќ He is a man capable of brutality when it is required, but glad to avoid it when it is not. (I, for one, look forward to the next role in which DiCaprio doesnвЂ™t feel a scruffy goatee is needed to confirm his postpubescence.) But the movieвЂ™s true revelation is Syriana vet Strong, who plays head of Jordanian intelligence Hani Salaam. DiCaprio and Crowe deliver their customary quality, even if neither shows us anything terribly fresh. The script, adapted by William Monaghan from a novel by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, shrewdly sticks to shades of gray those waiting for a stark double cross that will reveal the movieвЂ™s true villain will wait in vain. There are some pleasant surprises along the way. Hoffman is a callous cynic who declares, вЂњAinвЂ™t nobody likes the Middle EastвЂќ and вЂњI donвЂ™t have time for cultural sensitivity issues.вЂќ IвЂ™ll leave it to you to guess which is the good guy. Ferris is a jaded humanist who likes the Middle East and believes AmericaвЂ™s best hopes for defeating terrorism lie in open cooperation with our allies in the region. Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a CIA field operative Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) is the stateside handler with whom he is in frequent disagreement. The result is a film that, while far less muddled, still doesnвЂ™t have much new to say.

Three years ago, Ridley ScottвЂ™s ill-conceived epic Kingdom of Heaven implicitly asked the question, вЂњWhat would a movie about the Crusades look like if everyone in it had a 21st-century ideological outlook?вЂќ (The unsurprising answer: It would look nothing at all like the Crusades.) With Body of Lies, Scott once again turns his eye to conflict in the Middle East, though this time he wisely keeps his moral and historical frames in present-day alignment. Ridley Scott's new Middle Eastern thriller follows the same script you've seen onscreen before. Like Christof in Peter Weir's The Truman Show, Hoffman is a grand manipulator who thinks that he can 'save civilization' by monitoring the Middle East through the cameras of high-flying drones and using his hands-free cell phone to order agents on the ground into action. The commanding officer is Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe). agent in the homeland, who organizes covert operations halfway around the world via cell phone, and the crackerjack field agent he commands and monitors. That's because the film is divided between a C.I.A. It feels as if half of Body of Lies is viewed through the lenses of high-tech surveillance equipment. And in this contemporary context, Ridley demonstrates the same delicacy in portraying culture clashes that he showed in 2006's Kingdom of Heaven. But it's actually the bigger brother at the controls. On first glance, Body of Lies looks like a Tony Scott film, with its the super-slick style, ubiquitous cutting-edge technology, and spy-game conventions. If you see helicopters, explosions, and a lot of high-tech gadgetry, chances are you're watching Tony's work. He's more of a stylist than a storyteller. Ridley's brother Tony is known for flashy commercial thrillers and action pics-solid genre movies like DГ©jГ Vu, Man on Fire, Spy Games, Enemy of the State, and Top Gun. Sumptuous cinematography and strong performances distinguish his grand epics about power, corruption, and conscience. Best known for directing Alien and Blade Runner, two of the most influential sci-fi films ever made, he also delivered such classics as Thelma and Louise, Black Hawk Down, and Gladiator.

Sir Ridley Scott is not only one of the world's most popular filmmakers-he's also a visionary.

Body of lies movie reviews