THE IDES OF MARCH (2011)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Running a presidential campaign during the primaries must be the most exhausting and time-consuming work there is. If you are the presidential candidate, you are trusting your campaign manager and all the interns to do the best they can for you, assuming they believe in you. With "The Ides of March," the assumption is more honestly cynical - it may have nothing to do with ideals and more to do with career advancement.
Take Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling), the smarter-than-thou and quick-on-his-feet press secretary to Governor Morris (George Clooney), the Democratic candidate running for a seat in the Oval Office. Stephen may or may not pretend to be an idealist but that is what he sells. It is what Stephen sells to a zealous New York Times journalist (Marisa Tomei), whom he pretends to be friends with though he will not reveal information that could damage the candidate, no matter how trivial. Stephen has to be cautious but things get messy when he talks to a rival campaign manager named Duffy (Paul Giamatti) who works for Senator Pullman, Morris's opponent. Stephen should never talk to Duffy in a secret meeting but word gets out. And one of Morris's interns (Evan Rachel Wood) might have a questionable black mark on the campaign that could ruin Morris's chances.
Clooney himself co-wrote and directed this film, based on the 2008 Off-Broadway play "Farragut North." Clooney has proven to be a true actor's director and he also has a surefire way of getting all the tension he needs for this evolving story to give it maximum impact. From the long take of a campaign manager entering a vehicle and then exiting after being told something secretive to Gosling's brilliant last scene where his face, no longer the smiling careerist we see earlier, gives us goosebumps, Clooney can definitely handle this material with complete assurance (he has already proven to be quirky with "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and to give a historical event a dose of vitality with "Good Night, and Good Luck"). But the script loses a little momentum when a damaging secret is revealed that is resolved a little too cheaply for my tastes. I will not say it is the cheap exploitation of fictitious political crises like Clint Eastwood's over-the-top thriller "Absolute Power" but it felt a little crass and it is handled with a complete lack of sympathy. That is all I can say, and I expected more from writer-director Clooney who looks for an easy way out.
The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman as a disgruntled campaign manager who is as much a careerist as Gosling's Stephen. Gosling is exceptionally good and reveals layers that run the gamut from deceitful and charming with a sly smile to feeling as if he has been cheated. And Clooney, who has fewer scenes than almost anyone else, handles his presidential role with aplomb - he's got the smile and the smoothness down pat. The movie though left me feeling cheated, despite an ambiguous final shot that could have used more of an even structure. Still, in an era of Hollywood movies that recycle and reboot everything, it is a breath of fresh air to see a political movie with more brains than CGI. A little more empathy would have been nice too.
