..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

Body of Lies
Directed by Ridley Scott

There are echoes of Syriana in the Ridley Scott directed Body of Lies. Both films have action that ping pongs throughout the Middle East and back to the Langley headquarters of the CIA. But the new tale of terrorism is considerably more obscure and arcane. There's a singular absence of purpose or motivation for its protagonists and little reason to be sympathetic to either side in the fight.

The story itself is impenetrable. Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an agent working out of Jordan to ferret out an Osama-like religious zealot presumed to be behind Jihad-inspired bombings. His minder is a rather egomaniacal and questionably competent official (Russell Crowe) and his ally, the head of Jordanian intelligence (Mark Strong), is a canny peacock who appears to have a jittery moral compass.

However, even the briefest outline suggests a structure more logical and comprehensible than what actually transpires on screen. Characters act and react with inexplicable intents and the story evolves in a manner that defies linear or random templates and certainly anything that might keep us engaged emotionally or psychologically.

On the heels of The Departed, screenwriter William Monahan once again provides the weakest link in the creative contributions of Body of Lies. He previously worked with Scott on Kingdom of Heaven and this is a less than ideal collaboration. Actors and the director himself have noted the filmmaker's resistance to conventional plotting and that certainly didn't impede such diverse work as Thelma & Louise or Black Hawk Down. But it would have been catastrophe for the genre conventions of Alien and here seriously defangs the spy thriller.

At one point the Jordanian spy master delineates the differences and proper applications that separate torture from punishment. It's safe to say that Scott feels little need to make a distinction between the two and metes out both ferociously without concern of collateral damage.

- Leonard Klady

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