Movie Review: Body of Lies

There has been a dearth of decent movies for awhile now, and I've recently descended into "CSI: Miami Land", burning through five seasons in 3 weeks with one to go. I was really looking forward to Body of Lies, despite the fact that I'd read almost nothing about it and had only seen a couple trailers.
Body of Lies had a lot going for it on paper: it was directed Ridley Scott, who is my favorite director (Black Hawk Down, Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, and Kingdom of Heaven;) it has Leonardo DiCaprio (an excellent actor who is on a great winning streak for excellent acting) and Russell Crowe (one word: Gladiator), both of whom are solid actors at their peak; and the film's story is essentially a far more realistic Bourne-type spy thriller. In theory, the formula looked great. In reality, Body of Lies simply left me at least mildly confused, and at worst mostly indifferent.
The movie deals with CIA agent Roger Ferris (Leo) who is trying to develop a lead towards a newly emerging, hyper-violent Al-Qaida terrorist cell. There are two challenges he faces. First, these terrorists have adapted their techniques to the CIA's tactics: they have gone completely lo-tech, off-the-grid in their communication and planning. The CIA has slowly evolved from a primarily human-intelligence based organization to a signal-intelligence organization that over-relies on their target's use of cell phones and computers; finding any lead requires covert contacts and source-development. Secondly, his CIA handler (Crowe) is the worst kind of boss: he tells Ferris to do one thing but then either withholds or, worse, withdraws tactical support at really bad times; he meddles in Ferris' business, completely ignoring mission-critical needs.
In spite of these challenges, Ferris perseveres and forms an unlikely alliance with the head of Jordanian intelligence (played by some guy who essentially steals the show from Leo and Crowe.) The trail to the terrorists is complex and requires a great deal of legitimate counter-intelligence smarts that stretched my own mental capacity.
Even as I wrote all of that, I still can't understand why I was so underwhelmed by the film. I think it was because the movie failed to successfully tread the line between being genuinely entertaining and having an important social or moral message. There are some action scenes, but they are heavily outnumbered by scenes with Leo and Crowe talking intensely into cell phones, which gets old and somewhat laughable, especially since that is all Crowe's character does. On the other hand, the message of the movie is too narrow and confined. As a movie set in the real-life, on-going War on Terror (which is sadly an essentially invisible war the American public neither understand nor are cleared to hear about anyway,) the movie says that the CIA needs to refocus its investment in reliable human intelligence to compliment its technological abilities, as well as recognize the need to develop a relationship of trust and cooperation with foreign governments and organizations whose goals align with our own. This is an important message, but seems aimed more as a CIA employee HR video than for general public consumption. It is hard to really identify or relate to such a niche message as an average American.
The movie also included a romantic subplot that, despite providing the only levity in the entire film, seemed too distracting and superfluous, especially when the supposed "pay-off" came late in the third act of the film and was almost non-existant; certainly nor justifying the extensive set-up. The subplot was too long and drifted too far from the central story. This could have been remedied by either removing it altogether, or actually developing some kind of satisfying narrative closure.
When all is said and done, Body of Lies just kinda is what it is: an overly complex film with an overly subtle message. This despite great acting, top-notch production values, and Scott's always excellent visuals. Scott's weakest efforts are still better than most films, but I hope that he hits one out of the ballpark soon--I want another Gladiator or Black Hawk Down.