Body of Lies

After a spate of spate of middle-east based failures released by Hollywood over the past 12 months, you have to approach yet another one with some trepidation, even if it comes from an acclaimed director and has the one-two punch of Crowe and Di Caprio above the title. It's been met with a muted response from critics - Body of Lies currently polls a mediocre 50% on rottentomatoes, which means half of those critics polled would class this as a failure, putting it behind the likes of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Quantum of Solace, and, incredibly, RocknRolla. Point me out the raving lunatic that thinks Guy Ritchie has done anything in the last 10 years that comes anywhere close to the quality of this film and I'll beat him to death with a big black rubber sex toy. To be fair, that memorable scene actually came from the one film that Guy Ritchie has ever done that was any good, but I digress.

Body of Lies opens with a skilfully directed action sequence set in Manchester and then another in the Middle East involving Roger Ferris (Di Caprio), a covert Arabic speaking CIA agent specialising in counter terrorist work. After almost single-handedly dispatching a terrorist cell he is given a promotion of sorts to work out of the US embassy in Jordan. After quickly putting his predecessor in his place over the half arsed job he and his team have been doing, Di Caprio approaches the Jordanian head of security (Mark Strong) with whom he sets up an uneasy alliance - one where they clearly prefer the tag of friendship than enmity but where neither has the confidence to share classified information with each other. The film explores Ferris' attempts to root out terror in Jordan with the ultimate goal of capturing Al-Saleem, the man responsible for the Manchester bombing as well as others throughout Europe.

Critics have said this is a very Tony Scott film, and it is true that this is the most technologically up to date film of the Ridley's career, and the most action heavy piece since Black Hawk Down. Ridley's younger brother hasn't really done anything of note since Enemy of the State, but that particular film is genuinely great in my opinion and, like this, was technologically savvy and covered much ground quickly.

Body of Lies though is a completely different beast. It has a smart script penned from the David Ignatius novel and adapted by Oscar winner William Monahan, with whom Scott work on Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps a perceived lack of focus hurt the film in terms of critical reception, and it is true that there is a lot going on here. We only settle into the meat of the plot half way into the second act, but the build up to that point has been so satisfying that you almost didn't need a clearly defined goal, although when it comes it is a strength of the film. Ferris hatches a clever plan to entrap Al-Saleem by setting up a rival terrorist cell and getting Saleem curious enough to initiate contact. The way Ferrris goes about setting it up is smart and brilliantly executed and could easily have merited its own 2 hour picture.

However I wouldn't fault the structure of this film at all and it was extremely entertaining to be plunged into the hi-tech world of counter-terrorism. Di Caprio is once again on top form in a film in which he probably should have got sole billing. That honour was shared by Russell Crowe who, despite being one of the finest actors working today, I have yet to mention. That's because he really is a secondary player to Di Caprio and has very little to do other than speak on the phone to his man in the field. If Di Caprio is a bit like Jack Bauer, Crowe is a bit like a one man CTU - someone who phones in advice and instruction from Washington and a man capable of making extremely tough calls instantly, and without giving them a second though. Crowe carrying an extra few pounds and in the Jeffrey Wigand build from The Insider, plays his small role perfectly and is possibly the star of the show, although it's a close run thing between him and relative newcomer Mark Strong. Strong plays the Jordanian minister with a quiet gravitas that has you completely convinced that the guy is extremely powerful. Oozing charisma and authority in his role, Strong really should get a significant career boost from his impressive performance here.

Body of Lies is far far better than critics will tell you. Whilst it wont go down as a home run in the Ridley Scott canon, it a film I would unhesitatingly recommend. The strong performances and the wonderful visual flair that you a guaranteed with Ridley, make it worth the price of admission alone.

B+

Adam's 2008 Preview

With the Writers Guild of America on strike the 2008 movie season is a little up in the air. Some big films have completely fallen by the wayside - most notably (for me at least) was a film I was immensely looking forward to in Pompeii - Roman Polanski's adaptation of the brilliant Robert Harris novel. Others have been indefinitely delayed, including Ron Howard's Da Vinci code follow up, Angels and Demons. Many films slated for release in 2008 will only complete if the strike ends reasonably soon. With that in mind some of the following may not actually find themselves released this coming year, although I think I've chosen a top 10 that should be unaffected by the strike. Some other promising films may have made my top 10 but their future is still undecided. And of course there may be a couple of films that are completely under the radar that I haven't got my eye on, and they'll probably be the films that I appreciate the most. That all said, here are the top 10 films I am most looking forward to in 2008...

10. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Well this had to appear on this list somewhere. I pretty much write off every summer as a complete waste of time – in fact not since 2000’s Gladiator have a I seen a summer film that could be considered awards worthy. That’s not to say all summer films are bad. Just 95% of them. This though has the potential to buck the trend. The three films in the series to date are all highly recommended and with the pedigree involved you’d hope that the same will be true of this. Lengthy delays in production will have the doubters writing this off already – there must have been more rewrites on this script than on all of the scripts Spielberg’s previously worked on put together. After ditching versions by M Night Shyamalan, Tom Stoppard and Frank Darabont, they finally went with a version from David Koepp – he of Jurassic Park, Zathura and Mission Impossible fame. Maybe I’m not looking forward to this after all.

9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – David Fincher’s follow up to the brilliant Zodiac tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences. I’m not normally into either Brad Pitt or fantasy films but with Fincher at the helm it’ll be hard to imagine this being anything less than very well executed.

8. The International – Looking at my list there’s more than a fair share of thrillers. When thrillers are done well they are probably my favourite genre of film. The number of Hitchcock films in my top 25 is testament to that, as is the high placings of films like Silence of the Lambs, The China Syndrome and The Conversation. Smart adult thrillers are as satisfying as anything cinema can offer – they leave you breathless and excited n a way that other genres can not often match. The trouble is thrillers are so rarely done well – in fact aside from last year’s 36, there hasn’t been a thriller on my year end lists for years. After such a long barren spell 2007 proved to be a very welcome surprise with half a dozen intelligent thrillers coming along at once. Michael Clayton, Breach, Zodiac, Eastern Promises, Tell No One and The Lookout will all be vying for a place on my best of 2007 list. IMDb tells us that The International is about an Interpol agent attempting to expose a high-profile financial institution's role in an international arms dealing ring. The agent is Clive Owen. He costars with Naomi Watts. Can it continue the trend of high quality thrills that 2007 offered? We’ll have to wait and see. Tom Twyker directs.

7. Star Trek XI – Okay okay, I’m a trekkie. But not a real one. I only like Star Trek: The Next Generation. And that’s allowed, because it is absolutely undeniably awesome. Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner were brilliant week after week and there were some absolutely genius episodes – even Emmy took notice and gave it a Best Drama nomination in its 7^th season, making it the only incarnation of Star Trek to be so honoured. I told you it was the best one. So then I was naturally disappointed to learn that the eleventh film adaptation of the Star Trek franchise has dispensed with the Next Generation crew and started afresh. I loved all the film incarnations – even Insurrection, which seemed to have killed off the TNG crew as it performed poorly at the box office. There is some good news though – producers have not gone with the crews of Voyager, Deep Space Nine or Enterprise. That would’ve been too much to bear. So we’ve a brand new crew with JJ Abrams taking Star Trek back to its roots instead. Matt Damon was once rumoured to be Kirk, but they’ve gone with relative newcomer Chris Pine instead. Who knows how this’ll pan out, but I’ll be there to watch it regardless.

6. Valkyrie - A Tom Cruise film is not one you’d expect to see on my top 10 most anticipated list but this is not your typical Tom Cruise film. Or at least it doesn’t look like it is. With a supporting cast of British greats which include Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp and , most notably, Tom Wilkinson, this has piqued my curiosity and I’ll be eager to see how this plays out. Valkyrie is the historical drama about a plot to assassinate Hitler. This could be a complete misfire but, quite possibly could be one of those rare films that resonate equally with critics and the movie-going public alike.

5. Shine a Light – A Martin Scorsese documentary on the Rolling Stones is the year’s surest bet. I’ll give it an A right now!

4. Burn After Reading – The Coen brothers found great form and critical acclaim with this year’s No Country for Old Men – a sure-fire Oscar nominee and already recipient of a huge number of critics awards. I’ll see it on Jan 18^th (stay tuned for my review) but this is all about next year’s films – so my eyes are already looking ahead to the Coen’s next one. Here they re-team with George Clooney in a comedy drama about two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell a CIA disk. Joining Clooney are Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich and Frances McDormund. This looks a fairly safe bet.

3. Body of Lies – A raft of Iraq based films in 2007 tanked at the box office but that hasn’t put off Ridley Scott in developing a William Monahan script (he of Oscar winning The Departed fame) of the David Ignatius novel. IMDb tells us a former journalist injured in the Iraq war is hired by the CIA to track down an Al Qaeda leader in Jordan, but the most interesting news on this film is the casting of the two leads – Leonardo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe. It seems compulsory now for Crowe to star in all Ridley Scott’s films, and when you work as well together as they do (A Good Year notwithstanding), why not. Leo is finally getting the critical acclaim to match his legions of fans worldwide and they consistently deliver great performances in everything they do. It'll be fascinating to see them work alongside each other. Joining them is an actress who also features in Valkyrie: Carice Von Houten. That’s a couple of impressively high profile movies to have snagged a role in in the same year - I wonder whether this’ll be a break-out year for her? One thing is for sure, with one of my favourite directors at the helm, this will be handsomely shot, beautiful to look at and if the substance matches Scott’s legendary vision then it could well be one of the best films of the year.

2. MR73 – My favourite film of 2006 was Olivier Marchal’s 36 Quai des Orfèvres, a stylish French film starring the equally brilliant Daniel Auteil and Gerard Depardieu – the latter taking 5^th spot on my year end awards list. Marchel treads a similar path in MR73 – it’s another police thriller starring Auteil and if he can capture half the excitement of 36 then this’ll be well worth seeing. 36 had so many outstanding things going for it, from the a blue hued palette of the cinematography; a moody, tension magnifying score; a cracking plot full of unexpected yet convincing twists and turns; wonderful acting and direction that was both elegant and straight-forward. Marchal didn’t go down the quick-cutting, handheld route that seems practically obligatory in recent action thrillers, instead creating a stylish film with substance through good old fashioned trick of building suspense from start to finish, drawing the viewer in, taking hold and never letting go until the credits stop rolling. I hope MR73 can offer some similar brilliance.

1. Revolutionary Road – Sam Mendes has made 3 films. I’ve graded them A+, A+ and A-. Mendes is absolutely the director whose work I look forward to the most – heck he directed a film I saw 3 times in cinemas, one which tops my Greatest Film of All Times list. That film is Road to Perdition, his other A+ entry is American Beauty and his worst film to date – one I’d unhesitatingly recommend - is the brilliant Jarhead. In our year end awards, American Beauty and Road to Perdition top their respective years and Jarhead finds itself in the runner up spot. This is an impossibly high bar to live up to but I have faith in Mendes especially with a bit of casting that is every bit as fascinating as the pairing of Leo and Russell.

Leo’s in this as well, and alongside is Mrs Sam Mendes herself, Kate Winslet. It’s the first time Mendes has directed his wife. It’s the first time Winslet and Di Caprio have been paired since their star-making turns in Titanic, 10 years ago. For all Titanic’s detractors (and I’m certainly not one of them) I haven’t seen too many complaints of the chemistry between the two leads and their acting ability is unquestioned. Di Caprio has won three Oscar nominations; What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator and last year’s Blood Diamond. A strange nomination the last one, being as he was far better in The Departed.  Leo will be pleased to have noted he earned a prestigious runner up spot on my 2006 movie years ballot for his effort in Scorsese's film.

Winslet’s critical acclaim is through the roof. 5 Oscar nominations by her 30^th birthday is the most in the history of the Academy Awards. That’s more nominations than Kathryn Hepburn and Meryl Streep had by their 30^th birthdays. The only blemish is that she’s not won one yet, maybe that’ll change this year?

Revolutionary Road is a drama exploring the troubles of a couple trying to raise two children. There are no gimmicks here. No fancy plot twists or quirky characters. Just (I expect) great acting and direction. Roger Deakins is doing the cinematography and Thomas Newman is scoring. If I don’t see this on opening weekend it’ll be an interminable wait.