Following from The Departed Leonardo DiCaprio has continued his appearance in dark and confrontational films in this adaptation of David Ignatius's 2007 novel 'Body of Lies'.

Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is a secret agent for the CIA, posted in Jordan in the search for terrorists bombing civilian targets. During his investigations, Ferris discovers information on Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul), a terrorist mastermind. He calls on the help of his USA based boss, Ed Hoffman (Crowe), to set up a plan to penetrate Al-Saleem's terrorist network. In addition he seeks the help of the Chief of Jordanian Intelligence, Hani Salaam (Strong) but is unsure of how trustworthy he is. This mismatched alliance creates a cultural and moral clash between the men.

This is a full on and confrontational film with a narrative so dense, you can't afford to leave the screen for a moment in fear of missing something vital! It involves current issues with a political viewpoint without preaching too much. Instead it shows the gulf of moral haziness experienced by people working in the intelligence field. This is a film for those who like their thrillers to have more content than a string of car chases and theatrical fight scenes.

Set in the U.S. around the time of the first Gulf War, Jasira is a thirteen year old girl from a broken family and with a mixed ethnic background. When it becomes clear that something isn't right between Jasira and her mother's boyfriend, she is sent to live with her Lebanese-Christian father in Texas.

Her father is a strict disciplinarian and focuses most of his attention on convincing his neighbours that he is not an Arab and not a Saddam supporter. Early on there are signs that Jasira is starting to realise her own sexuality and this transformation takes a leap forward when she comes across a stash of magazines while babysitting a neighbour's child.

Over the course of the movie she tries to deal with her own feelings of sexuality, the advances of her (adult) neighbour, attention from boys at school and the conflict with her father's strict beliefs. Jasira finds refuge in another neighbourhood family that senses some of what might be going on and the movie ends on a somewhat uncomfortable sense of normalcy.

This is not a movie for everyone. I started watching the movie with some apprehension based on my superficial knowledge of the plot, and found myself needing to pause the movie thirty minutes in to confirm the age of Bishil (Jasira) for my own sanity. Despite the name, the ethnic/racial conflict in this movie is subtle and not central to the story. There is a level of discomfort in this movie from start to finish, but that's the point. It deals with the awkwardness of growing up, the parent-child relationship, sexuality and abuse. This is a movie about character conflicts: we feel both sorry for and annoyed by the father, ashamed of and sympathetic toward the mother. The neighbour seems like an average, charismatic blue-collar guy who ultimately disgusts us, but manages to redeem himself (only slightly) by his actions and words at the end of the movie. Jasira herself raises conflicting feelings in us, and it's probably best left to the viewer to decide the details.