Director: Ridley Scott, 15, 128min

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong

On general release

If Hollywood ever needs to send a special envoy to the Middle East, Scott would be the ideal man for the job. In the past decade he has shot four films in Morocco, and it is clear that he's developed a sophisticated and sympathetic understanding of the political fault lines running through this part of the world. Black Hawk Down was rightly criticised for its blinkered take on the failed US peacekeeping mission in Sudan, but Kingdom of Heaven was a far more intelligent Crusades chronicle than it was given credit for, especially in the longer director's cut.

His new film is a critique of the Bush Administration's handling of the War on Terror masquerading as a spy thriller. Written by William Monahan (who scripted The Departed) from a novel by David Ignatius, Body of Lies pits DiCaprio's CIA field agent against his Langley supervisor, Crowe. Crowe's character calls the shots, he has whizzy surveillance technology at his fingertips and exudes an isolationist arrogance. He would rather terminate an enemy than turn him, and he would rather know less than pool information with a foreign intelligence officer (Strong, effortlessly stealing the film as his sharper Jordanian counterpart). DiCaprio's character, on the other hand, is on the ground, forging alliances and even romancing an Iranian nurse. It's not hard to spot which of them would vote for Obama.

Of course, all this does not necessarily make for a good film. Body of Lies has scope and smarts, and as you would expect from Scott the visuals are impressive - even the dust gleams. But the film limps along in the story department. It is frustrating that Crowe and DiCaprio spend most of the time talking on the phone - their few scenes together in the flesh have more spark. The romance is weak, and when the plot finally kicks in - well over the halfway mark - the promising conceit doesn't go anywhere interesting. Instead, we default to a nasty modern version on that old trick - the kidnapped heroine tied to the railway tracks. Not bad, but not good enough.

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