Body of Lies

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Body of Lies neither panders nor condescends. It involves current events and has a political viewpoint, but it overplays neither.

TV Guide Perry Seibert

The crisply photographed and edited Body of Lies reveals some ambition, for while it certainly works as pure entertainment, this tale of a good man trying to extract himself from an impossible situation offers some commentary on America's feelings about being in Iraq.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Its generic attributes (and title) notwithstanding, Scott's film may be the sharpest of all the post-9/11 thrillers--and also the most purely entertaining--in the way it maps the vectors and currents of the modern intelligence-gathering game without losing us in its dense narrative thicket.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Body of Lies is a James Bond plot inserted into today's headlines. The film wants to be persuasive in its expertise about modern spycraft, terrorism, the CIA and Middle East politics. But its hero is a lone ranger who operates in three countries, single-handedly creates a fictitious terrorist organization, and survives explosions, gunfights, and brutal torture.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The result is commendably non-West-centric, but no less sentimentally conceived.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Fascinating and flawed spy thriller.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's not like the screens are so flooded with decent movies that we couldn't use another, particularly a timely, clear-eyed thriller about the Middle East and the role of the U.S. therein.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

As good as it is in pieces, its protagonists are distancing, its story is tangled, its film-noir cynicism is oppressive and unglamorous, and it just doesn't leave us with the satisfying unity of the kind of great movie it wants to be.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Leonardo DiCaprio brings straight-razor reflexes and rooted emotion to the role of a deceptively rugged CIA man.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's a genre film - the action is fierce and nonstop - with a brooding undercurrent of unease that aims for the complexities of John le Carre.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

With its urgent post-9/11 context and often brutal violence, it seems off-key to describe Body of Lies as a nifty political thriller, but that's what it is.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Always crisp and watchable. But as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

It may not be as much fun as old spy movies starring Cary Grant or more recent entertainments such as "Spy Game," directed by Ridley's brother Tony, but it feels all too accurate.

The New Yorker David Denby

The movie is smart and tightly drawn; it has a throat-gripping urgency and some serious insights, and Scott has a greater command of space and a more explicit way with violence than most thriller directors.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Ftrangely emotionless. There's little offered in the form of rooting interests or compassionate characterizations, making the film ultimately as ephemeral as its title.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Doesn't have much new to offer in either style or substance. It's got the same glossy-gritty urban warfare sheen as "Black Hawk Down" and every other Third-World geopolitical action thriller of the last few years.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A tautly paced, well-acted espionage thriller with the requisite explosions and action sequences. Still, it ends up leaving the viewer rather cold.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The romance seems tacked on as a way to humanize this character; there's no reason the nurse would take up with a brash, secretive American.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a generic, clunky title. The movie isn't quite as disposable, but it's not exactly memorable, either.

Premiere Eric Kohn

Scott doesn't bring much to the table as an action director, and his keen storytelling abilities go invisible here.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The most interesting thing about this slick but frustrating picture is the way it puts Crowe’s Hoffman at the center of our mixed feelings.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The film has one indelible asset: Mark Strong, who plays the Jordanian spymaster Hani. He's sleek and lounge-lizard sharp like a young Andy Garcia, and he could be bigger than Garcia. The Jordanian holds all the cards, and opposite two superstars, Strong is the only actor who holds the camera.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A mostly formulaic approach that becomes more disappointing as the yarn unwinds.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

As it is, the movie is a hodgepodge of borrowings and half-cooked ideas, flung together into a feverishly edited jet-setting exercise in purposeless intensity.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

For all of Ferris's desperate struggles, and for all the director's efforts to emulate the remarkable verisimilitude he achieved in "Black Hawk Down," his new film remains abstract and unaffecting. It's a study in semisimilitude, more Google-Earthly than grounded in feelings.

Time Richard Corliss

In all, Body of Lies is a mixed bag of treats and trials, but it should be seen by audiences, and emulated and improved upon by other top directors.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The sickly feeling that Body of Lies leaves at its conclusion isn't just about the brutality of its subject; it's the realization that real-life barbarism translates so easily into adrenaline kicks for the multiplex.

Slate Dana Stevens

DiCaprio and Crowe, two supposedly high-wattage movie stars, are remarkably dull to watch together--perhaps because so many of their scenes together take place over the phone.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Aside from a nifty new way to avoid surveillance in the middle of the desert, there's nothing here we haven't seen in many other movies - including "Spy Game," directed by Scott's brother Tony before 9/11.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Lacks, a story that makes it feel personal.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Like Scott's last picture, "American Gangster," this is a little too slick and commanding for its own good; despite Crowe and DiCaprio's best efforts, their characters keep getting flattened by the steamroller narrative.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It's a lot easier to follow than "Syriana." But intelligibility is about the only thing this international thriller has going for it.

Empire Ian Nathan

For all the enthralling visuals and action, the film feels garbled.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Depressingly inert.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Excessively intricate and extremely dull, the latest example of a filmmaker giving us a disjointed, overlong movie that’s unnecessarily confusing to follow.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

It's like torture, though Body of Lies has nothing to spill.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Most of this just seems, you know, so three years ago, so "Bourne" again.