An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Nick Curtis's rating
Reader rating
Body of work: Leonardo DiCaprio at the Leicester Square premiere of Body Of Lies
Ridley Scott's latest thriller doesn’t convince. It’s slick and urgent. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a compelling performance as Roger Ferris, a CIA man enmeshed in webs of betrayal as he tracks al Qaeda in the Middle East. But peep beneath the veneer of topicality, and Body Of Lies looks hollow.
It’s not the portrayal of duplicity within American and Arab security services that grates.
Nor the idea that Roger should be repeatedly stitched up by his boss back home, Russell Crowe’s paunchy Ed Hoffman. These shenanigans happen at street level, divorced from a wider political context.
Scott is interested in the nuanced game of double- and triple-cross. The deserts of Iraq and building sites of Dubai just make a nice backdrop. Where he tried to make an intelligent statement about the Middle East in 2005’s Kingdom Of Heaven, his banal message here is that what goes around, comes around. And despite DiCaprio’s ferocious intensity, one can’t help noticing that Roger is without motivation, substance or credibility.
Crowe’s Hoffman is a zealot. We know this because we see him ordering expedient deaths as he takes his kids to school. Arabic-speaking Roger, however, is supposed to have a conscience, which makes his decision to frame an innocent Arab in order to entrap a terrorist mastermind seem strange.
For a covert operative Roger is also oddly careless. He waltzes around Iraq and Oman with nothing but a wispy beard to disguise his American features, and begins an improbably speedy flirtation with Aisha, a half-Iranian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani). It would almost be better if Aisha were there just to tick the “love interest” box. But she’s an integral part of scriptwriter William Monahan’s daft plot. British actor Simon McBurney turns up, purely so his character and Roger can explain the story to one another, and us.
It’s still possible to enjoy Body Of Lies. DiCaprio and Crowe outstrip the limited resources they’ve been given, and Mark Strong contributes an enjoyable if surprisingly camp cameo as the head of the Jordanian secret service.
Scott directs with typical vigour, transposing beautiful landscapes with massive explosions and scenes of punishing combat and torture which leave DiCaprio’s pretty face and body mangled to an extent unrivalled even by Daniel Craig’s Bond. Behind all the bombast, though, this leaves one feeling vaguely cheated.
Body Of Lies goes on general release on 21 November.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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