Body of Lies, 2008

If nothing else, I think I am finally beginning to accept Leonardo DiCaprio as an adult leading man. (As adequate as he was in the well-done "Aviator" as Howard Hughes, he just looked too darn young for me to really buy it.) Here, he is a bearded, black-haired, highly competently Arabic-speaking CIA agent and pulls it off with aplomb, albiet coming within a hair's breadth of overplaying the tough guy attitude. (Maybe that's why they included the love interest). Anyway, this is a modern head-knocking, hand-smashing movie experience, hopped up on all the latest spy technology (probably exaggerated slightly, too, such as the detail capacity of spy-in-the-sky live space surveillance, and always-perfect cell phone connections); a lo-glam, non-posh James Bond. As such, it is pretty good, and perhaps even slightly less bewilderingly complex in its plot than, say, "Syriana," which I liked without ever quite knowing what the heck was going on in it. There is also intelligence here, if not quite the seriousness of "Syriana," --no ugly anti-Arab stereotypes here either--but one never gets much of a feel what all the regional Mideast conflict is all about, other than the cartoon version: "they're religious fanatics who want to convert or kill or non-Muslim heathens." That's spluttered out by the good-ole-boy CIA character played well by a deliberately bland-faced Russell Crowe. He is not a totally reassuring hero figure for Americans (maybe because it is slightly satirical?) as a CIA executive at the D.C. headquarters. Expertly put together from cinematography, to music, to editing, "Body of Lies" offers a fast-moving two hours of international thrillerdom, but may nonetheless leave you scratching your head, for more than one reason, unless the shoot-the-rapids satisfactions are enough by themselves for you. 3.5 stars. 5.09

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