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Body of Lies
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 56 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
David Ignatius (novel)
William Monahan
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 10, 2008
DVD: February 17, 2009
Running Time: 128 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, Oscar Isaac, and Simon McBurney
Roger Ferris is the best man U.S. Intelligence has on the ground, in places where human life is worth no more than the information it can get you. In operations that take him around the globe, Ferris' next breath often depends on the voice at the other end of a secure phone line--CIA veteran Ed Hoffman. Strategizing from a laptop in the suburbs, Hoffman is on the trail of an emerging terrorist leader who has orchestrated a campaign of bombings while eluding the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. To lure the terrorist out into the open, Ferris will have to penetrate his murky world, but the closer Ferris gets to the target, the more he discovers that trust is both a dangerous commodity and the only one that will get him out alive. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Body of Lies neither panders nor condescends. It involves current events and has a political viewpoint, but it overplays neither.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The result is commendably non-West-centric, but no less sentimentally conceived.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Leonardo DiCaprio brings straight-razor reflexes and rooted emotion to the role of a deceptively rugged CIA man.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
It's a generic, clunky title. The movie isn't quite as disposable, but it's not exactly memorable, either.
Read Full Review >Premiere Eric Kohn
Scott doesn't bring much to the table as an action director, and his keen storytelling abilities go invisible here.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
A mostly formulaic approach that becomes more disappointing as the yarn unwinds.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Nathan
For all the enthralling visuals and action, the film feels garbled.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
It's like torture, though Body of Lies has nothing to spill.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Most of this just seems, you know, so three years ago, so "Bourne" again.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 56 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Lisa B gave it a4:
If it had not been for Mark Strong's performance in this movie, it would have been terrible. I'm a big DiCaprio fan, not so much of Crowe. But I expected a lot from this movie. As some people said before, it was a bit too Hollywood for my taste. But again, Strong's perforance steals the show and he proves that he can hold his own and even shine brighter than well known great actors.
caporegime gave it a1:
This movie won't be remembered.
Robert I. gave it a7:
Hollywood takes on modern political warfare, with tart, crisp results, but still Hollywood.
Tony M gave it a10:
Another masterpiece from Ridley Scott. Small problem in the plot which had me rocking in my seat- Those UAV's have Infrared. The U.S. could have seen the exchange of Ferris.
Ed T. gave it a1:
Boring 'cellphone' pic. Wholly unoriginal and entirely unbelievable at the same time.
Vince H. gave it a7:
I agree with Jess D.'s review...Mark Strong really stole this film and regardless of awards or any of that, very few reviewers even mentioned him. Anyways, as you can see from the user reviews, this film is not nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be. This is easily Ridley Scott's best film since "Black Hawk Down".
Travis B. gave it a4:
I thought it was terrible. I struggled to finish it.
