Other than that, I can't really say there's anything in Body of Lies that I haven't seen before, as far as espionage movies go, but the pacing is refreshingly tight for a Ridley Scott film, Crowe's performance as an amoral, fat-cat spook far away from the dangers of war in Langley was exceptional, and the action sequences certainly delivered. DiCaprio's performance as a ground operative was solid, though his vaguely Southern accent wavered frequently, which was annoying. Why bother with an accent at all? A friend of mine who also saw it thought he was overacting in certain parts, but I mean, if you were captured by terrorists, how would you act? Pretty effing over-the-top, don't you think?

There is also a love story between DiCaprio's character and a young Iranian woman, which, while nobly attempting to tell the side of the non-violent Middle Easterner's suffering while caught in the horrific crossfires of the War on Terror, it just felt tacked on. The message is effectively conveyed, I suppose, but I just couldn't stop thinking, "Why on Earth would he pursue her like this?" He has to know that it would attract attention to himself, not to mention the danger it could put her in (and, of course, ultimately does). That point would have been made much better another way, and it felt like something the studio likely pushed to make the heavy artillery portions of the film more palatable to female viewers. Which is insulting, to say the least.

Overall I think it would be safe to say Body of Lies is indeed a (slightly) lower-brow Syriana, if you need to compare it to something, with less focus on the root of the conflict in the Middle East, and more focus on the flaws in its execution on all fronts, and the bureaucracies behind that execution. At the very least, it's interesting.