Film Geeks like myself are definitely looking forward to this film. The Weinstien Company recently released the official teaser poster for Quentin Tarantino's anticipated film "Django Unchained" His latest film features an all star cast that includes Jamie Foxx,Leonardo DiCaprio, Kurt Russell, Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson, and Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz. Quentin Tarantino's" Django Unchained" is slated to hit theaters on christmas day.

Plot Synopsis:

Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles - dead or alive.

Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South's most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago.

Django andSchultz's search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award®-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of "Candyland," an infamous plantation where slaves are groomed by trainer Ace Woody (Kurt Russell) to battle each other for sport. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie's trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival...

Written and directed by Academy Award®-winner Quentin Tarantino, DJANGO UNCHAINED is produced by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone. The executive producers are Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Michael Shamberg, Shannon McIntosh, and James Skotchdopole. DJANGO UNCHAINED will be released in the U.S. on December 25, 2012, and internationally by Sony Pictures.

Good friends of mine keep telling me that they get all annoyed about movies with twist endings, where the rug is pulled out from under you. For a while now, a lot of people keep getting sick of filmmakers messing with their heads, and one guy told me that he thought that this tactic was “really cheap” and HATES it. I have never been bothered by it too much, and I pride myself on being open-minded and keeping my expectations in check. Some twists can be quite profound if it ties the story together perfectly, and it can make you want to see certain movies more than twice. As long as the ending doesn’t end up giving me a massive headache like the one in “Saw,” I think I’ll be fine. Or will I?

After seeing “Shutter Island,” I feel like I am starting to get my fill of twist endings as it seems like I have seen far too many. Right now, the television ads for it have been bragging about the movie’s ending, and it has now become its chief selling point. I’m not gonna compare this to other movies with tricky endings because I don’t want to give anything away if I can help it. But with this one, I felt like I knew how things were going to end, and it took away from my enjoyment of this movie a bit.

How you take in “Shutter Island” may depend on how you take in its ending and of how many of its kind you have witnessed whether by choice or not. Once you get past that part of it though, it is still a very well made movie that is never boring. Martin Scorsese directed this adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel, and his work has made for some truly great movies like “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone.” It also reteams Scorsese with his Robert DeNiro of the past decade, Leonardo DiCaprio. You can’t help but expect the best from these guys.

Leo plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshal assigned to investigate the escape of a patient, not a prisoner (as Ben Kingsley’s character constantly reminds him), from Ashecliff Hospital. This hospital houses the most dangerous of mentally ill patients, and it is housed on Shutter Island which is presented to us here as one of the most isolated places on Earth. Try to think of it as Alcatraz for the horrendously insane. Teddy is partnered up with Chuck Aule (the always dependable Mark Ruffalo) to investigate, and they speak with everyone from Deputy Warden McPherson (John Carroll Lynch) to chief psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), and it soon becomes clear that nothing is as it seems…Well, nothing ever is in life.

The one thing I’m really enjoying about writing this review is that I don’t have to spend all that much time talking about the plot. The less I talk about it, the better the experience will be for you. So in the meantime I can write all about all the other elements involved that went into “Shutter Island.”

Leonardo DiCaprio may be headlining this, but Martin Scorsese is always the real star of his movies. It deals with many themes that are predominant in the majority of his movies: guilt, losing your soul to something you cannot control, acceptance of what you did, finding redemption, having to go through your own personal hell, etc. This material is more than suited to Marty’s seemingly endless Catholic guilt, and he has quite the production to go along with this one. Ever since he won the Best Director Oscar for “The Departed,” it seems as if he suddenly has access to even bigger budgets than ever before.

The look of “Shutter Island” is great, and the hurricane that ends up thrashing the hospital and its unlucky inhabitants (sane and insane) is a less than subtle metaphor for secrets that are meant to be uncovered in the worst way possible. Whether it’s one of the stronger or weaker films in his long volume of work, you can be sure that Scorsese never half asses anything he does, ever. Every little detail from the forest surrounding the island to the inside of the dreaded C Block where the worst of the worst are held have been endlessly scrutinized by the director to where you believe that nothing is missing. Plus, he continues working with cinematographer Robert Richardson who did brilliant work on Marty’s Rolling Stones IMAX concert film “Shine a Light.” Robert gives the island a beauty that is forever clouded over by hidden secrets which will bring out the darkness that Teddy is trying to hide or run away from.

Then of course, you have the performances, and there is not a weak one to be found here. Leonardo DiCaprio marks his fourth collaboration with Scorsese with another in a long line of great performances. There should be no doubt by now that he is one of the best film actors of his generation, and his work here is very exhausting to sit through as he gets deeper and deeper into the all consuming madness of this island. Leo doesn’t even have to put anything in words to describe how his character can no longer trust anyone.

As for the rest of the cast, they are on their game throughout be it in the big or small roles they were cast in. It remains all too true; there are no small roles, only small actors. Ben Kingsley never strikes me as ever being capable of giving a bad performance, and that’s even when he is stuck in some of the worst movies ever. I don’t care what anyone says, not even Ewe Boll can make him look bad. As Dr. Cawley, Kingsley presents a kind demeanor that hides secrets he calmly keeps to himself, refusing to bring them out into the open, even if it means finding the escaped patient (not prisoner mind you). Kingsley’s eyes only let you so far into his soul, and his character remains an enigma until the very end. Even after it’s over, he still leaves you with some suspense over whether or not he is dealing with reality.

Max Von Sydow is also on board here, and he is still alive and kicking thespian ass long after making his breakthrough in Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal.” Exactly how many movies has he been in anyway? He’s amazing! As Dr. Jeremiah Naehring, Von Sydow has the appearance in his face of a physician who deals in various methods of treatments far too hideous for him to describe. Of course, he probably has nothing on Jigsaw from that endless “Saw” franchise. In his best acting roles, Von Sydow effectively creates a menacing presence without even trying to be menacing. Of course, it helps when the story and direction do much of the work for him before we first see the particular doctor.

Michelle Williams remains one of the few actors who survived those years of teen soap operas (“Dawson’s Creek” to be more specific), and who has since managed to maintain an acting career as an adult. She is more then deserving of being taken seriously as an actress long after her Oscar nominated performance in “Brokeback Mountain.” As Teddy’s deceased wife, Dolores Chanal, Michelle gives a deeply felt and heartbreaking performance which will have you empathizing with her character regardless of her shocking actions.

There are also some choice cameos to be found throughout “Shutter Island,” and they come from some of the best actors around (whether or not they are big name stars is another story). Patricia Clarkson, whose work in movies ranges from “The Untouchables” to 2007’s “Lars and the Real Girl,” more than excels in the 5 to 10 minutes she has onscreen as the one character who may very well hold the key to what is really going on at Ashecliff Hospital. Ted Levine is a quiet threat here as the warden of the hospital, and his 3 to 5 minutes of screen time are enough to scare his Buffalo Bill character from “The Silence of the Lambs” silly. And then you have the great Jackie Earle Haley as a patient who is really does look like he belongs in the worst part of the island, and his intensity during the scene he has with DiCaprio never lets up. This gives us a good idea of what we can possibly expect from him when he takes on the role of Freddy Krueger in the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” remake (like it or not, it’ll be here soon).

But having said all that, the ending almost undid all of this strong work for me. For the last ten or so years, these twist endings have kept piling up to where each one feels incredibly stupid or depressingly predict from one film to the next. Seriously, I felt like I saw this specific coming almost right from the start. Its not that the ending is bad or doesn’t completely work (it is a bit of a head scratcher), and I’m not going to say how it should have ended either. I get so freakin’ sick of people complaining how this movie or that one should not have ended that way. How is a movie supposed to end anyway? How about this one?

I guess what bothers me is that Scorsese doesn’t succeed in bringing anything new to this kind of ending. After all these years, he remains one of the best American filmmakers, and he generates tension the way few others can. But while his personal touches can be found here and there, “Shutter Island” threatens to feel more like an average mystery, and we have come to expect so much more from him.

Still, “Shutter Island” is undeniably well made and is never ever boring. Despite feeling a bit letdown, this film held my attention throughout. Spending a couple of hours watching this one will certainly be more preferable than to sit through “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” again. My frustration with the climax probably has more to do with the number of movies I have seen overall, and those not familiar with these twists will probably still get a big kick out of it. I wish I liked it more than I did, but between this and “Legion,” what are you really gonna watch?

*** out of ****

“Once in a lifetime comes a motion picture that makes you feel like falling in love all over again. This is not that movie.”
-Tagline for “War Of The Roses”

“Revolutionary Road” is really a horror movie more than anything else. It is brutally honest in the way it depicts the terrible disintegration of a marriage, the kind that none of us ever want to get trapped in. Those out there who think that gay marriage is a threat to the sanctity of marriage should take a look at this movie, for it is a much more astute examination at what can destroy marriage in general. When the movie starts, we know that we are in for a fateful journey of two people who at first look like they belong together, and we know that they will eventually tear each other apart.

But as tough a movie “Revolutionary Road” is to watch, it is also an utterly brilliant one, and it is further proof that Sam Mendes’ Oscar win for his directorial debut of “American Beauty” was no fluke. There is not one single false note to be found in the movie, and it feels practically flawless in its making. It has great visuals, a great script, and amazing performances from the entire cast. Sam Mendes makes “Revolutionary Road” an experience into the horrors of conformity, the very thing we all try to fight against.

The movie starts with its two main characters, Frank and April (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet), as they first meet at a party and are instantly attracted to each other from first sight. The movie then moves forward to years later as April is finished up a show she is acting in, and is bowing to a very unenthusiastic response from an indifferent audience. It is clear that their relationship has gotten cold over the years, and the frustrations constantly simmering under the surface of both characters seem to be the only thing left for them to deal with. This leads to April to come up with what she sees as the perfect plan; They can sell their house and car and move to Paris where she can support Frank through secretarial work while he figures out what he really wants to do with his life. They both see it as their great chance to escape the confines of normalcy that has been eating away at their fragile little souls. However, reality threatens to take away from their dream one piece at a time.

This is Sam Mendes’ fourth film as a director, and you can see a common thread through all his movies up this one. Sam seems endlessly fascinated with lives a seemingly standstill, and with characters who hope for something incredible to happen them. They are waiting for that moment where they can change into what they always hoped to be, and to take advantage of what lays ahead of them. In “American Beauty,” it was the characters’ desire to wake up from their dead and dysfunctional lives. In “Road To Perdition,” it was the desire of Tom Hanks’ character to get his son away from the devious life he was leading as a mob enforcer, and to redeem himself in the eyes of his son for all the bad things he has done in the hope that he can find a different path in life from his father. In “Jarhead,” it was the desire of the soldiers to enter a war and fight like men, and to take down their enemies by lethal force.

This comes around full circle in “Revolutionary Road” as it deals with characters eager to escape their suffocatingly conformist suburb to live a life of sheer excitement. But they soon come to find that they are not as special as they thought they were, and the desires of Frank and April seem to work in opposition to one another. The characters are complex in their creation, and we see what fuels their individual needs, desires, fears and anxieties which serve to define them and their actions. It’s almost like Frank and April are like George and Lenny from “Of Mice And Men;” they are two people hoping to get something they can never really have, and they delude themselves into thinking that all is within their grasp and that their dreams will soon become a reality. But reality comes to rear its ugly head at them, and you know that it ain’t gonna pretty.

In a sense, “Revolutionary Road” can be seen as kind of a distant cousin to “American Beauty” in how it details the suffocating environment of suburban living, but they approach it differently. While “American Beauty” dealt with its characters with a dark sense of humor, the environment in “Revolutionary Road” is much more bleak and consuming. In fact, “American Beauty” seems like a delightful walk in the park compared to this one.

The movie takes place in Connecticut in the 1950’s, but the feel of the movie is quite contemporary which shows how frighteningly timeless story is. This is what will make the movie hard for many people to watch as they may end up seeing themselves in these two people; the longing for a more exciting existence, for an escape from the suburban way of living that has drained them almost completely of feeling, and to get another chance to do what they really want to do in life.

Along with cinematographer Roger Deakins (“No Country For Old Men”) and production designer Kristi Zea (“The Silence Of The Lambs”), Mendes perfectly the look and feel of the 1950’s to where you feel like you are right in it and not just watching the movie. Mendes also captures the routine of the life in suburbs, and manages to capture some unforgettable moments like when April takes the garbage out to the front of the driveway, and she sees everyone else has placed theirs out in front as well. In that moment, he captures April’s realization of how she and Frank have bought into the resigned way of living they thought they would somehow avoid. It’s a beautiful movie to look at, but the ugliness of its characters frazzled emotions come through to make this seem anything like a Norman Rockwell portrait.

In addition, Mendes is served very well by his frequent film composing collaborator, Thomas Newman. Newman’s score may sound like many of his others, but he captures the longings of both Frank and April as they tumble through their seemingly mundane existence, and soon end up being driven crazy by it and each other. Throughout all his work, Newman seems to work with music so subtle in how it is performed, and yet so powerful in what it ends up conveying. It’s no accident that Newman also scored Mendes’ “American Beauty” and Todd Field’s “In The Bedroom.” Like Mendes, Newman has a strong feel for life in the suburbs no matter what decade.

But in the end, “Revolutionary Road” is really a tremendous acting showcase more than anything else, and I don’t just mean from the two main actors (we’ll get to them in a minute. I don’t think that I have ever seen a Sam Mendes that has had a single weak performance in it, and this movie is certainly no exception. Among the cast you have the always wonderful Kathy Bates who plays Mrs. Helen Givings, the endlessly talkative real estate agent who sells Frank and April the home they end up living in. The smile on her bright face serves to hide the pain that we see later as we are introduced to her son who has just been released from a mental institution. You also have Dylan Baker as Frank’s co-worker, Jack Ordway, a man who endlessly waxes philosophically over the craziness of our existence. Dylan is always a pleasure to watch no matter what he does. David Harbour and Kathryn Hahn (I thought she was Ana Gasteyer for a moment) are also excellent as the next door neighbors, Shep and Milly Campbell. The excitement that April and Frank have over their plan to go to Paris both enthralls and depresses Shep and Milly, and the way they react to it suggests that April and Frank are not the only ones leading lives of quiet desperation.

But one of the truly standout performances from the supporting cast from this movie comes from Michael Shannon as Helen Giving’s mentally unhinged son, John. In an atmosphere where the truth is felt but never verbalized, John finds himself completely incapable of telling a lie. Essentially, he is a Vulcan like Mr. Spock, but with an overabundance of raw emotion. Through his thoughtlessly cruel remarks to everyone around him, he exposes the seemingly perfect couple and their marriage for the sham that it has become, and you can clearly feel his betrayal by these two people who had promised to escape the lifestyle they found so hopeless. Michael’s performance is astonishing in its uninhibited nature as he becomes the voice of reason in a world so full of lies and with people living a seemingly comfortable life within it. It’s a daring performance that does not pull any punches, and it is deserving of an Oscar nomination.

This of course brings me to the two main actors of the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Their coupling in this movie has been the movie’s endless selling point as it is their first movie together since “Titanic,” still the highest grossing movie of all time at the box office. But this movie is very different from that one. It could almost be seen as a story of what happened to Jack and Rose after the big ship sank, assuming that Jack survived the freezing waters. Both Leo and Kate have an incredible chemistry with each other on the screen, and it almost seems crazy that it took them over 10 years to do another movie together.

Leonardo DiCaprio continues to prove why he is one of the best film actors of his generation. Throughout the movie, he lets us look past the egotistical nature of Frank Wheeler which allows him to seduce a naïve young secretary (Zoe Kazan is wonderful in the role), and to see the pain and fear that threatens to steer him further in a direction he never planned to go in. The relationship he had with his father always seems to be surrounding him in ways that are never fully explained, but we can see how it enforces him in the decisions he ends up making. Frank clearly cannot stand the job he has as a salesman, but he also is equally terrified of leaving it as he feels he may let down his family in one way or another. Leo brilliantly captures the complexity of this character whose needs and desires constantly tangle with each other, and whose anger and frustration with where his life eventually boils over to the only person he can take it out on, his wife. Leo turns in a raw performance where his vulnerabilities are so vivid that you see them in yourself.

But as raw and complex as Leo’s role is in this movie, he is almost blown away by the performance given by Kate Winslet. Along with her work in “The Reader,” this has definitely been the year of Kate Winslet, and Oscar should finally shine down on her for once. You almost think that she was in a Lars Von Trier movie with the pain her character suffers throughout the movie’s 2-hour running time. Whereas Leo’s character of Frank may have been desperate, Kate’s character of April is ten times as desperate. Her desire to escape the boring life she sold herself out to is never ending, and she can never hide the pain from others as to how much she wants to leave this life even while she feels helpless in doing so.

Seriously, Kate is in my humble opinion the actress of 2008, having given brilliant and devastating performances in two singularly great movies in one year. You have to wonder where she gets the energy to do all this emotionally exhausting work, and I can’t think of a braver actress that I have seen in movies this year other than her. The work she did in this film and “The Reader” shows that she accomplish that no other actress can accomplish right now. She has more than earned her place in the ever growing pantheon of great actresses. I’m telling you, she better get the Oscar this year because she sure as hell deserves it!

“Revolutionary Road” is not the most enjoyable of movies to watch, but not all movies are meant to be, and this one is not without its purpose. We empathize with Frank and April in spite of the way they treat each other because we know that all they go through can easily happen to us before we know it. That’s why the movie gets so deeply under your skin; these people will remind you of others around, and it you will see yourself in these characters as well. I myself seem to be leaving a life where I am caught up in making a living and in pursuing the things that make me the happiest. The road is never easy, and you always wish for it to be easier. But in the end, things could be worse as we could end up like April and Frank.

Sam Mendes is one of the best directors working today, and he has created another masterpiece of suburban isolation that stands proudly alongside “American Beauty” and “In The Bedroom” among others. It also shows how the term “civil marriage” can seem like the ultimate oxymoron. It goes back to people saying that love is a four-letter word, or that it is a sentence. Frank and April’s story is a tragic one, and probably not a movie for those just engaged.

Once again, Sam Mendes is a lucky man, dammit.

**** out of ****

“If anything happens to me or my family, an accident, an accusation, anything, then first your son will disappear, his body will never be found. Then your wife. Her body will never be found either. This is guaranteed. Then, whatever is the most dangerous thing you do in your life, it might be flying in a small plane, it might be walking to the bank, you will be killed. Do you understand what I'm saying? I want you to acknowledge that you do understand so that we're clear and there won't be any mistakes.”
-- Bob Barnes from Syriana

Ridley Scott’s Body Of Lies exists between George Roy Hill’s The Little Drummer Girl and Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana. Ridley Scott is the long lost love child of Stanley Kubrick and David Lean. He has a visual finesse that has not dimmed since The Duellists. Like Lean and Kubrick before him, he has a flair for epic storytelling which demands the immense canvas of the big screen. If he never did anything but The Duellists, Alien and Blade Runner, his reputation would be secured. It is a career of massive hits and dismal flops. Hannibal, G.I. Jane, A Good Year, and 1492: The Conquest Of Paradise still leave a sour taste in the mouth, but even these flops look absolutely beautiful. The real estate of A Good Year is the main attraction, not even Russell Crowe can overpower the beautiful surroundings of the film. David Lean and Stanley Kubrick could not always hit the mark every time. Yet even within the disasters of Ryan’s Daughter and Barry Lyndon, one was watching beautiful banalities unfold.

Body Of Lies is a very mixed bag. It comes fresh off the heels of Ridley Scott’s American Gangster-- a gargantuan criminal epic that reinforced everything that has made Mr. Scott’s films a bloody pleasure to watch in the theater in the first place. Body Of Lies may very well belong with Scott’s Matchstick Men and White Squall where the performances keep the film from falling apart altogether. Given Body Of Lies globetrotting espionage plot, the film certainly has the epic grasp and thriller elements of Black Rain, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, Gladiator and Kingdom Of Heaven. The film has a huge scope, maybe too huge.

Body Of Lies should work better than it does. It has some things going for it. Yes, it is another film that uses the backdrop of the War On Terror as its canvas. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are front and center in William Monahan’s (The Departed) screenplay based on a novel by Washington Post reporter, David Ignatius. Body Of Lies does not suffer from the heavy-handed preaching that doomed Rendition, Lions For Lambs and Redacted. Those films were as mediocre as the Administration it was eviscerating. Sadly, Body Of Lies does suffer from run of the mill action clichés. At times, it does feel like we have seen some of these set pieces before in the Bourne series and The Kingdom. It is those action scenes that give the film any hope of surviving at the box office as a political thriller. Personally, I feel that Paul Greengrass does this kind of film best, not just the Bourne films, but also United 93. One can only imagine how he handles Green Zone which is based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s riveting Imperial Life in The Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone. The film displays the pop espionage likeness of Spy Game mixed with the technophile’s delight of Déjà Vu; both films were directed by his brother, Tony Scott. The obsession with satellite technology that is displayed in Body Of Lies is very topical for several reasons. Satellite technology plays a crucial role in the film. It is how CIA operative, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is able to do his job out there in the battlefield as his superiors at Langley watch from the skies. It is an Orwellian trade off of the highest order. Big Brother is watching everyone. It is no longer look to the skies, but the skies are looking at us. The technology has become a character all its own. Look at D. J. Caruso’s Eagle Eye, the machines win plain and simple-- they control everything. But truth be told, Body Of Lies works a lot better than Eagle Eye which is nothing more than a dumb downed version of Colossus: The Forbin Project-- somewhere D.F. Jones is having the last laugh. It is the technology’s misuse which delivers a chill to the audience. It gives James Bamford and his latest book, The Shadow Factory more cause for alarm than ever before. While that book is about the abuses of the NSA, it does go hand in hand with the end of privacy in our society. Do we need anymore fear? Is there not enough fear on the campaign trail being exploited as it is? The fear card is the wretched excess of Neoconservatism.

Syriana did what Body Of Lies is trying to do much better three years ago. It is the film that Body Of Lies is desperately trying to be at times. It is the great shame that Body Of Lies never finds a sustained pulse of its own. What Body Of Lies does have going for it is three good performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and Michael Strong. The film’s major problem is that the plot is very convoluted and it does not need to be complicated as it is. Because of the convolutions of the plot, the film never gets any traction; this is a bleeding shame since William Monahan did such a fine job of adapting Infernal Affairs into The Departed. The film’s plot follows CIA operative, Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), who is working in Jordan searching for terrorists who have been bombing civilian targets in Europe and England. Ferris is the ideal operative for modern times. He speaks Arabic and has respect and knowledge of the cultures and customs of the Muslim world. He is the antithesis of his bloated supervisor, Ed Hoffman, played by Russell Crowe. Hoffman is the armchair advisor who watches the world from his monitor. He guides Ferris from the comfort and security of Langley and the Washingtonian Suburbs. The two of them are in pursuit of a mysterious Jihadist leader, Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul), a Bin Laden stand-in who is responsible for the multiple bombings. Ferris must enlist the aid of Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), the head of Jordan’s General Intelligence Department. Can Ferris trust Salaam and how far will that trust go? The enlistment of Salaam is a double edged sword. It should remind us of the fragile bargain we made with Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf’s after 9/11, but it plays more like a stale paradigm of Cold War intrigue. Ferris wants to use Salaam to use an informer to infiltrate a local safe house to capture Al-Saleem. It seems like warmed over John Le Carre more than anything else.

The acting in Body Of Lies is first rate for the most part. Leonardo DiCaprio reminds us that Martin Scorsese was the best thing to ever happen to him. He has been on a roll since Gangs Of New York. That is not to say that his performances in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy's Life and The Basketball Diaries were not fantastic, but Scorsese took him to another level. As Roger Ferris, he comes off as a cross between George Clooney’s Bob Barnes in Syriana and DiCaprio’s Danny Archer in Blood Diamond. There is an honesty in DiCaprio’s Ferris that reminds us of Robert Baer and Richard Clarke. Crowe’s Hoffman is another good performance from the Australian phone throwing actor. Crowe put on a lot of weight for the role. While watching him and smugness that Hoffman exudes, all I could think of was Charles Laughton’s Senator Seabright Cooley from Advise And Consent. For the most part, I believe that Crowe and Scott make a good team, even though this is not one of their better collaborations. Crowe and DiCaprio did not share enough onscreen time together. These are two very talented actors and the film would have benefited from seeing the two of them share more scenes. As good as DiCaprio and Crowe are, they are both overshadowed by Michael Strong’s Hani Salaam. He steals the film from both of them just as Raul Julia stole Tequila Sunrise from Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell back in 1988. Strong, who was also in Syriana, greatly resembles Andy Garcia; they could be brothers. Strong has a distinctive personality which permeates through every scene he is in. Hani has an elegant wickedness that the film desperately needs.

Body Of Lies should have been one of Ridley Scott’s better films. It has all the right ingredients for a solid thriller. Sadly, it is one of the season’s disappointments much like Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness. While I do not think it is a disaster, it should be better. Visually, thanks to Alexander Witt’s cinematography, the film has the trademark Ridley Scott visual flair. Yet even with some fine acting and cinematography, the film is lost in Cold War theatrics. And maybe that might be the film’s most telling sign. In the wake of 9/11, our intelligence services were still stuck in the Cold War era. The legacy of ashes never evolved into the 21st Century. It had to be violently shocked into change. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27th, 2007 cast an ominous shadow on this year. It was a foreshadowing of things to come. Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state. It is impossible not to watch Body Of Lies without thinking of the events it is imitating. It is impossible not to get angry and depressed thinking about how much longer we will be in that part of the world. In the film and in real life, this is a war without end. How much longer can this go on? Ridley Scott should have taken a page from Fernando Meirelles’ The Constant Gardener. He should have made a film equally as angry.