Summer has its big-budget popcorn movies, Fall has its "important" tent-pole films with big stars tackling big issues. Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott are three names so big that you'd think they might have already made a movie like "Body of Lies" - a first-rate spy thriller with its finger on the pulse of current events. Well, they haven't. But now that they have, we can be thankful that all three men, along with screenwriter William Monahan ("
The Departed"), are in fine fighting form. Adapted from Washington Post columnist David Ignatius's 2007 novel, "Lies" overcomes a rote trailer and tired tagline ("Trust no one") to become the first must-see of the season.
Directing with a surer hand than he's shown since 2001's "Black Hawk Down", Ridley Scott wastes no time getting the plot moving. "Lies" opens with a spectacular blast in a Manchester townhouse. It's quickly followed by a beautifully straightforward monologue by Mr. Crowe's character (dictated, incidentally, into the same kind of voice-recognition machine that Commander Adama used on the original "Battlestar Galactica"). The message of the monologue is so simple, so ardent in its nationalistic beliefs, that it may actually make you want to stay in Iraq (or at least vote McCain). That the movie is equally sure of the audience's ability understand the underlying arrogance and cynicism of the moment is just as satisfying.
Mr. Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, a CIA veteran now enjoying his position behind innumerable computer displays and an omnipresent cellphone handset (he does his best work while driving his kids around). Ed is the ostensible contact for a brash young field agent named Roger Ferris (Mr. DiCaprio). When we first meet Roger he's on the fast-track to running the American intelligence team in Amman, Jordan. He's kind of a leftist Jack Bauer - a young agent in an old agent's world. He knows all too well that standard American tactics won't succeed in the Middle East - and, as we see in brutal detail, he's not afraid to do what it takes to get the job done. The actors are surrounded by a fine supporting cast, most notably Mark Strong (one of the brothers from "Stardust") as Hani, a kind of gentleman-spy whose one rule is "Never lie to me". To Mr. Strong's credit, you believe him.
Perhaps to dispel the frequent complaint that he still looks too young for these roles (I admit it, I'm one of the complainers), Mr. DiCaprio adopts a certain manner from his "Departed" costar, Jack Nicholson. The gravely voice, low-slung fisherman's cap and frequent scabs and bruises (his trips to the hospital become a running gag) all serve the actor well. The southern accent? Not as much. Still, this is one of Mr. DiCaprio's most lived-in, least affected performances. Likewise, Mr. Crowe, who also frequently succumbs to actorly Method tics, gives a beautifully plumped-out performance of modulated whispers. His Ed Hoffman, clearly an avatar for American arrogance, is the perpetual fly in the Middle East ointment. He's an old-school spy still playing Patriot games, blissfully ignoring the fact that the rules he holds so dear have been upended long ago.
As he says in that opening monologue: fighting in the Middle East is like fighting in the past; if our enemy turns its back on technology, it can disappear. Ironically, "Lies" couldn't have been made without the most modern of filmmaking techniques - Morocco stands in seamlessly for the film's absurd number of locations. And the cloak-and-dagger work is interspersed with visceral big-budget action setpieces (all crushed metal, broken glass and spy cameras). But the underlying message is not lost amid the highly-polished rubble. Information is king. Trust is mandatory. And the game, irrevocably, has changed.
