"Ides of March" Movie Review

Directed by George Clooney (who headlines along with a powerhouse cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei and Jeffrey Wright)

"The Ides of March" is a new film co-written and directed by George Clooney, a film adapted from a play called "Farragut North," (the name of a Washington D.C. Metro stop). It is a gripping, well acted film. It opens with Ryan Gosling mishandling a political debate question in a darkened room. It is soon apparent that it is a practice setting for a future debate and Gosling is merely testing the mechanics of the debate. He is not even the candidate. Let the deception and the "Everything is not what it seems" begin.

The cast includes Gosling, Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and someone new (to me) Evan Rachel Wood. The setting is the Ohio Democratic primary between two presidential candidates and the winner probably will become the national candidate, the endorsement by the North Carolina Senator will probably deliver the nomination regardless of who wins the primary. Clooney is the modern, thoughtful and apparently moral candidate and his second assistant is Gosling. His campaign staff chief is Hoffman and their opponent's is Giamatti. The battle lines center on the competition for the Ohio votes, the Senator's (Wright) endorsement, and the complex manipulation of people by both sides as well as the inevitable secrets of explosive potential. The story ostensibly is the story of Gosling's maturity in the hard world of politics.

Everyone in this story is terrific; Wood is a special surprise and Tomei's character is defining for the story. But there are a number of problems in the story--not the acting--that hamper it. There are a number of crucial coincidences, deadly ones that generate the story. In the modern world, no story should hinge on the ability to get a phone call.

One would like a struggle in the changing characters; the process from good guy to bad guy is not an evolution, it should be a crisis that is poorly resolved. People in this story accept their circumstances. There is no struggle except in the effort of characters to extricate themselves from trouble. Goslin's development is more of a change of clothes; he merely changes style.

The notion that politics is seamy is a given in modern society; no one is surprised by it and it will not carry a plot. Hypocrisy, insincerity and moral danger are powerful in the hands of good actors. But, in itself, it is not enough. And with a title like "The Ides of March" you have set a high bar, too high here.