by Karyn L. Beach

I'm not going to lie. Body of Lies was on the cusp for me. It was between a "Liked It" and a "Rent It." Because I found myself thinking about it afterwards, I went ahead and gave it a Liked It. I'll explain why.

Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is about as deep as deep cover can get. He works in the Near and Middle East, speaks Arabic, dons similar facial hair as the locals and manages to have that grimmy what-do-you-expect-I-live-and-work-in-a-hot-ass-desert look. He works for Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) who manages him from the CIA homebase in Virginia. A terrorist mastermind Al Saleem (Alon Aboutboul) is planning and carrying out a series of terroristic attacks in populated European cities and we all know that American attacks are next.

On the ground, to catch Al Saleem, Ferris makes an uneasy alliance with the head of Jordanian intelligence, the very suave, dapper and clearly Westernized, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong). In order to lure Saleem out into the open, Ferris creates a fake terrorist organization and sets up an unknowning architect to act as its head. Of course, there is the love interest. Ferris falls for Alisha (Golshifteh Farahani) who fixes him up after he survives a brutal attack and car accident. Questions abound about who is double-crossing whom, who can be trusted and how high is the cost that must be paid to get to the terrorists.

You can't find fault with the acting in Body of Lies. DiCaprio has the intensity and weariness of a man who has been in too deep for too long. We watch him grow even more tired and disenchanted of the whole operation as the film wears on. Crowe provides an excellent counter, as the man who can be strategic and level-headed because he's operating from the safety of home. In fact, half the time we see Crowe's Ed Hoffman, he's living out an upper-class suburban existence, making directives from his ample backyard or while picking the kids up from school.

However, the most intriguing performance for me was that of Mark Strong. As Hani Salaam, he did an amazing job of playing his character and you never really knew if he could be trusted or not. He had a presence about him and he actually managed to hold his own, if not better, against DiCaprio and Crowe.

But, alas, something was missing. I had the same problem with Babel and Syriana. There was no real emotional connection for me with these characters. I get that in order to do their jobs well, the main characters have to develop an emotional detachment just to be able to survive but as a film, it has to find some way to make that connection with the audience.

Because that connection wasn't there, some of the scheming and planning, got a little dull for me and made me even more detached from the film. Be warned, there are some brutal (and I thought excessive) scenes of torture in the film as well.

But, it did make me think and it was enjoyable to watch three solid performances, and that's why I'm tettering towards Like It.