Body of Lies (2008)

Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Golshifteh Farahani, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, Alon Abutbul, Ali Suliman, Simon McBurney, Jamil Khoury, Mehdi Mebbou, Kais Nashif. [R]

Spy thriller set in the contemporary conflict between the Western and Arabic worlds, with DiCaprio as a CIA field operative in the Middle East and Crowe as his cynical and unscrupulous boss back in Langley. Convoluted plot tracks the operative’s efforts to hunt down a major terrorist (Abutbul) in Jordan, negotiating a dangerous path while being manipulated by both his handler and local intelligence. Professional production values and credible performances are the hook here, since the tradecraft jargon, murky politics, and overfamiliar aesthetic are too conventionally old hat to separate the film from so many other examples of the sub-genre (they’re as much a blur sometimes as the line between good and bad in these merciless situations). DiCaprio’s tentative romance with a Jordanian nurse (Farahani) is such an obvious trope that you can set your timer to the moment when she’s kidnapped by the enemy and becomes a plot device. Screenplay by William Monahan, who previously scripted a different Middle East-set film for director Ridley Scott: Kingdom of Heaven. Michael Stuhlbarg appears briefly; Carice van Houten filmed scenes as DiCaprio’s separated wife, but they ended up on the cutting room floor.

57/100