By Sean Knight
Three out of Four Stars
Director George Clooney’s liberal politics are well known to anyone who has followed his career. He is an outspoken advocate on many progressive issues and is not afraid to speak his mind about the worlds current political climate. His 2005 feature Goodnight and Good Luck about CBS Reporter Edward R. Murrow’s fight against Joseph McCarthy wore its liberal heart on it’s sleeve and was a reminder that fear mongering was not an option in today’s politics. Clooney’s latest feature, The Ides of March, also deals with liberal ideals and politics except it is a lot more cynical than his previous pictures. In many ways it shows that liberals can be just as corrupt as any republican and that in politics all is fair game. The Ides of March follows the story of a young idealist (played by Ryan Gosling) working on a presidential campaign for a democrat (played by director George Clooney) in the heat of the Ohio primary. The film shows Gosling’s eventual disillusionment with the political system and ideals he so loves and his eventual folding into the world of dirty politics. The film and story are slickly made and acted, but The Ides of March doesn’t have much to say that most of us who follow politics don’t already know. Politics is a dirty business no matter what side of the fence you are on.
Clooney appears to be basing his presidential candidate as an ideal mash-up of President Obama and former President Clinton. He puts a lot of words in the character’s mouth that any liberal would love to hear. He makes the audience as well as the characters on screen fall in love with him. But then Clooney and the script take a nosedive that is so predictable and something that we have seen so many times in real politics and in political films that it undermines the character he has been trying to build. This “twist” sets in motion the events for the rest of the film and the disillusionment of the Gosling character. I realize the point that Clooney is trying to make here – even the best of men and candidates make big mistakes and nothing is, as it seems. Okay, but what does that point serve a liberal audience who has already lived through the Clinton impeachment and the eights years of home-style terror under George Bush? The twist does play itself out well as far as plotting and character development go, but the whole time I felt like Clooney was elevating extremely predictable material. It is a testament to his gift as a director that he was able to do this, but a major flaw with the film all the same.
Gosling is in fine form as the young idealist and his transformation is believable and as real as the confines of the script will allow him to be. Clooney himself is quite good as the presidential candidate in question and provides himself with plenty of juicy scenes that play up to many of the actors’ strengths. But the two actors who steal the film out from under them are Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as two campaign advisors who have been playing this game a long time. Hoffman and Giamatti can play this kind of role in their sleep, but it’s precisely because of that quality that their characters pop from the screen. Giamatti in particular gets a great scene late in the picture that spells out exactly how the game of politics is played in today’s America. The scene could very well be the thesis of the entire picture.
The Ides of March boasts great production values and a killer score from composer Alaxandre Desplat. From top to bottom The Ides of March is an impeccably made film. It’s something that Clooney should be proud of. But the fact remains that we have heard this story before and the film doesn’t provide any new insights into the political system. Well not for anyone who has been paying attention the past few years anyway.
The Ides of March
Directed by George Clooney
Release Date: October 7th, 2011
Run Time: 101 Minutes
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