American
politics is corrupt, conniving, power-craving, misogynistic and
undemocratic world. But one thing you certainly can’t call it is boring.
Hence
why most of the political stories across the ages have been set in the
land of the free, whether they be fact or fiction. The latest offering
to the fictional pile is The Ides of March, a film that stars its own writer and director, George Clooney.
I don’t
really know why the film has such an important meaning for the 15th
March but it does, maybe that’s election day or something. My best guess
is that it’s making reference to the fall of Julies Caesar, but who
knows maybe the DVD release date will be on 15th March.
As
political dramas go, The Ides of March is a decent enough addition. I
do enjoy political movies, especially ones that depict an actual event
of some kind; movies like Fair Game, the story of Valerie Plame
who the Bush administration illegally revealed as a CIA officer. The
Ides of March however is fictional and centres around the most fun time
of election season.
Ryan
Gosling, the film’s main star, plays Stephen Meyers, an aid to
presidential candidate, Governor Mike Morris, played by Clooney.
The
story looks at how no matter how valiant your goals are or how much you
believe someone can make a change, it’ll never work out for the good of
the people and you’ll end up just as corrupt as your predecessor. In
order to do what you do best, at least in politics, you’re going to have
to sell your soul to the devil.
The
performances from Gosling and Clooney are very good throughout, as is
the one from Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays the Governor’s other
strategic aide, Paul.
My
favourite scene in the movie (slight spoiler alert) is when Stephen sees
Paul outside his car after stabbing him in the back, and they have a
very mundane and normal conversation like nothing’s happened, Paul just
walks off with a cigarette declaring he’ll go find some consultancy firm
to work for. Backstabbing really is just part of the everyday life in
politics.
Towards
the end Gosling’s performance gets chillingly good as Stephen becomes
more and more conniving and starts getting the knives out and
blackmailing left, right, and centre.
This made me think, perhaps this is a prequel to Gosling’s other 2011 movie: Drive.
When the movie ends Stephen is practically the same character as the
nameless lead in Drive! Well I suppose we know what he went on to do
after helping Clooney into the White House. He went on a murderous
rampage, got a job with the dentist from Seinfeld and took down a
drug-lord just for the fun of it.
Anyway, The Ides of March is a good movie, but unlike Drive it
never really does anything that will truly grip you or leave you
hanging off the edge of your seat. It’s enjoyable enough but I just
expected a little bit more from it.
That
being said, I do actually believe that Clooney has a lot of potential as
a director. He now has two decent films under his belt: The Ides of March and Goodnight and Goodluck. I’m looking forward to seeing more from him.
Final Verdict: 3 Stars. Not exactly Shakespeare but a good political drama all the same.
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