Indefatigable director Scott is so deep in the industry that he cannot conceive of any field of human endeavor that isn't carried out as if on the Paramount lot. The telephone conferencing, as well as the scenes of Hoffman watching Ferris on spy-satellite screens, keeps signifying that this is a movie about moviemaking. Ferris is in constant contact via earphone with Hoffman as the latter drives around the suburbs and takes his children to soccer practice. Despite the sensible misgivings Ferris has about the intelligence coming from the home office, he helps set up an unwitting Arab businessman as the leader of a pretend terrorist group, in order to draw out the actual mad bombers.As his folksy control, Ed Hoffman, Russell Crowe is paunchy, drawling and dusted with gray powder. First a meet-cute over a rabies shot, and then over dinner Ferris allows that mistakes were made and says we would all like to have the war over as soon as possible. This romance is supposed to be more awkward in the book, but it's awkward enough onscreen. The debonair but sinister Jordanian spook agrees to help the United States with its main problem of 'not enough good Arabs to chase bad Arabs.' Ferris starts a shy romance with an Iranian/Palestinian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani).

Ferris is then transferred to a new effort in Amman to work with the saturnine Jordanian intelligence officer Hani (Mark Strong, the only good thing about this movie). The incident goes wrong, thanks to home-office interference the air support brought in to scare off the terrorists merely explodes Ferris' driver. Currently on assignment in Baghdad, he is developing an informer. The endless ethical conversation can be continued in the sequel.Leonardo DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, an old Arab hand with beard and baseball cap. And yet the old cop was right all along in understanding that there are no half-measures with criminals. The plot takes the form of a policier: Gruff old cop tries to teach young cop not to care so much, though ultimately the old man's cynical methods repel the younger idealist. The film's cleverest bit is a relatively low-tech kidnapping using dust and diversion, terrorists outwit all the spy planes at the United States' command. Based on Ignatius' novel, Ridley Scott's Body of Lies emphasizes the importance of on-the-ground intelligence gathering vs. Petraeus: 'They didn't win in Iraq, but they created the possibility of an honorable exit.' (It's like Fred Willard's description of a vicious hound being hauled out of competition in Best of Show: 'He's being led away in disgrace, but he's still a champion.') Fortunately, there are always novels to reflect an unbiased, if really out-of-it, newspaperman's misgivings about his country's warpath. 17, 2008) backs the surge, and the wisdom of W and Gen. Ferris is disillusioned by the CIA and leaves to look for Aisha.THERE IS something catchy about 's description of columnist David Ignatius as 'op-ed furniture.' He is the Washington Post columnist who still (as of Sept. In the end, Salaam tricked Ferris into believing that Aisha was kidnapped to get Al-Saleem. Al-Saleem captures Ferris, and he is tortured and about to be killed, when Salaam's team rescues him.

Meanwhile, Ferris' girlfriend Aisha is kidnapped, so he asks the kidnappers to get him to take her place. The plan works when Al-Saleem contacts the architect, but later kills him. Ferris and Hoffman now come up with a new plan by having a Jordanian architect claim responsibility for a fake terror attack. Salaam blames Ferris for the botched job. However, the terrorist escapes and goes back to his cell. Meanwhile, one of the terrorists at the safehouse is eyed by both Hoffman and Salaam as an informant/spy. When the op is compromised, Ferris is furious with Hoffman for not trusting him to run the op on his own. Hoffman asks Ferris to infiltrate a safehouse, while also running another op headed by another team, without Ferris' knowledge. He is assigned in Jordan by his boss, Hoffman, and they collaborate with the head of Jordanian intelligence, Salaam. Ferris is a CIA operative on the hunt for a terrorist Al-Saleem in the Middle East.

Body of lies movie review