Body of Lies Review

I had been wanting to see Body of Lies for awhile, so when it came on HBO my husband and I made sure to DVR it so we could watch it this weekend.  While Body of Lies is a good movie with a good story, it wasn't quite what I expected.  Comparing it to movies like The Departed, this film had way less action than other Leo DiCaprio films.

What's it about: Leo DiCaprio plays a US Citizen who lives and works for the CIA.  He works undercover in the Middle East with his ultimate goal being to track down a master terrorist who is killing innocent people throughout Europe with random attacks.  It's really hard to explain much more than that, you get the gist!

The Actors: Leo is great, as always.  He seems to do well in this CIA type of roll, just like he did in The Departed.  He was the only one in the movie that the audience could trust.  Russell Crowe played Leo's boss, more or less.  He was giving instructions from the safety of his hometown in the US.  Although he was on the side of the good guys, it was hard to say whether or not he could be trusted throughout the movie.  Russell portrayed the leader that makes decisions without being there to really see and know what is going on.

London born actor Mark Strong played a good role as well.  He was the head of hunting down terrorists in Jordan and Leo and him were working together to track down this terrorist.  He was another that you won't know if you can trust him.  

The Action, or lack of Action: For a movie about war, this sure was a talker!  Most of the movie was conversation, driving, meetings, and trying to figure out where the terrorist was.  There was not a ton of action nor a ton of fighting scenes.  It was still good, but if you were expecting an action filled movie, this isn't it.

Body of Lies really gives you some insight to how things might be in the middle east.  Leo represents the person that has been there, right in the heart of it all, and therefore he has a different perspective on the whole situation.  While Russell Crowe's catch phrase is "Nobody's innocent in this **it", Leo feels differently and is concerned about the innocent people who just happen to get mixed up in the whole mess.

Perhaps the one thing that makes this movie scary is the idea that there are terrorist out there who actually think like this.  Terrorist who want to just blow up and harm innocent people just to make up for the harm they have received.  I don't know how much of this movie is based on real life, but it felt very familiar with things that have gone on in the recent past.  

The few violent scenes are ones that you can see coming, so cover your eyes if you are squeamish.  I managed not to see most of these parts because I saw it about to happen.  I have seen worse movies (such as Inglourious Basterds).  This movie is definitely not for kids so keep that in mind going in.

Overall: Even though I almost fell asleep at a few parts near the beginning, Body of Lies was still a plenty interesting and unpredictable movie.  It's worth seeing, but is is over 2 hours long so make sure you are awake!  Enjoy!!