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'Body of Lies'

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BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

October 10, 2008

Like a high-school teacher throwing up flash cards in a current-events class, " Body of Lies" assaults the audience with hot-button place-names and topics: Iraq! Jordan! Terrorism! Torture! Words and images fly by so quickly that the movie sometimes feels packed with information, a speed-read through modern Middle East history, CIA bureaucracy and American foreign policy.

But no need to take notes. By the time this course is over you won't have learned a thing, though you will have enjoyed the sight of several explosions, shootings, Leonardo DiCaprio wearing yet another tough-guy beard and Russell Crowe packing an extra 50 pounds. It's all razzmatazz from an expert razzle-dazzler (director Ridley Scott, of "Black Hawk Down"), meant to distract you from a script (based on the novel by David Ignatius of The Washington Post) whose basic formula has seen more wear than an Abrams tank.

That's not to say "Body of Lies" isn't a passable Friday night flick. The story is almost comfortingly familiar: DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, a CIA agent in the Middle East who's hunting Al-Saleem, a pan-Arab terrorist mastermind (played, ironically, by Israeli actor Alon Aboutboul). Ferris is a hearts-and-minds guy, but his boss, Ed Hoffman (Crowe), is more point-and-shoot, a cold pragmatist who issues orders via cell phone from the safety of his family's minivan. Destined to get caught in their web is a pretty Iranian nurse named Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani).

The film's brightest moments come from Mark Strong, a British actor whose Italian heritage gives him just enough ethnicity to play Hani, the coolly calculating chief of Jordanian intelligence. Otherwise, this espionage thriller unfolds exactly as you'd expect. At one point, a villain even dares to gloat: "The cavalry is not coming." Care to guess what happens next?

(R)

PLOT Infighting and intrigue between two CIA agents on the trail of a terrorist.

CAST Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani

LENGTH 2:06

PLAYING AT Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE Terrorism and torture may be timely, but they can't hide the age-old formula of this passable action-thriller.

STAR BUCKS

Will Leo's 'Lies' be the ticket?

'Body of Lies," Leonardo DiCaprio's newest film, in all likelihood, will be a box-office success. But will it join this list of his top-grossing films?

1. "Titanic" (1997) - $600,788,188

2. "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) - $164,615,351

3. "The Departed" (2006) - $132,384,315

4. "The Aviator" (2004) - $102,610,330.

5. "Gangs of New York" (2002) - $77,812,000

Source: boxofficemojo.com