'Body of Lies' is a dry, convoluted mess

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It would seem that if you tossed Ridley Scott, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in a jar and then shook it, a fascinating movie would spill out.Add an intriguing Middle Eastern espionage premise, and you're talking Oscars.So it's a wonder that "Body of Lies" squanders all of those ingredients in a dry, convoluted mess.Based on the David Ignatius novel, the one thing the rickety, never-ending drama succeeds at showing is just how much of an unintelligible quagmire the War on Terror has become.American intelligence agents must sift through a slide puzzle of ever-changing enemies and allies, making moral sacrifices to inch Uncle Sam's agenda along.When your friends look and act like enemies, or may in fact be enemies pretending to be friends in order to fool their own enemies (or something like that), confusion is understandable.Probably the most confused man in the movie is Crowe, who plays rotund CIA higher-up Ed Hoffman. There's almost nothing for the Oscar-winner to do in this movie. He put on 63 pounds for the role and perfected an easygoing Southern drawl, but didn't even get decent lines in return.Hoffman tends to his family while phoning orders to brash operative Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), who is spending time in Jordan, attempting to ferret out an al Qaeda mastermind.A smooth-talker who's skilled at playing fractured forces against one another, Ferris constantly butts heads with his boss. Hoffman runs side operations without telling Ferris and demands that Ferris break fragile alliances to indulge his hunches.Hoffman is an old-schooler who doesn't trust anyone and insists America must "keep its foot on the throats" of enemies. Ferris, who resents Hoffman for his armchair quarterbacking, insists things are more nuanced than Hoffman can comprehend.Since Crowe literally phones the movie in, most of the onus lies on DiCaprio to carry the movie. He captures the tunnel vision of his character, but seems prone to overacting during profanity-laden tirades.Hoffman and Ferris slink behind the scenes, operating measures, countermeasures ad counter-countermeasures, wringing the narrative so violently they're violating the Geneva Convention.Ferris somehow finds time among all the trickery to flirt with an Iranian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani).It's nice that Ferris finds love, because he sure lost me.2 stars out of 4Rated: R for strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout.Director: Ridley Scott.Family call: Not for children.Running time: 128 minutes.(Pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)