Director: George Clooney
Genre: Drama
Rating: A-
This is not a fun movie.
It isn’t one of those films that you just turn on and watch in order to
be entertained. Instead it makes you
think and in the end you leave with a sinking feeling in your gut. In addition to not being a fun movie, The Ides of March isn’t even a
particularly happy movie. At no point in
it do you think that the characters might be successful and win – or, if you do
happen to think as much, it’s a very short lived thought. Despite that though, it’s a really good
movie: one of those films that is clearly made for the awards, but is actually
good. I usually find that the movies
that are made just for the awards that they might win are dull and boring, but Ides is intense.
Stephen Meyers (Gosling) is a man with a dream. The Junior Campaign Manager for Democratic
presidential hopeful Mike Morris (Clooney) Stephen’s dream is to put Morris in
the White House. This isn’t because he’s
on the campaign but rather because he actually firmly believes in Morris’
politics. He’s on the campaign because
he wants to see a man like Morris as president.
However, as Morris’ campaign is attempting to get the backing of Senator
Franklin Thompson (Wright), Stephen is offered a position by Tom Duffy
(Giamatti), the Campaign Manager of Meyers’ opponent. Stephen also becomes romantically entangled
with intern Molly Stearns (Wood), through whom he discovers that Morris is not
as honourable as he appears. This all
comes to head in one very dramatic day, completely changing Stephen’s view of
the world.
The journey that Gosling’s character goes on in this movie
is intense. In the start you’re rooting
for him and Clooney because it seems like they’re in the right. They’re the kind of guys that you want to see
running a country. As the movie
progresses though it becomes very clear that things are not always what they
seem and you begin to question whether anyone, really, is actually a good person
– or at least, whether anyone involved with politics is. Ides
has a very dark view of the world, and by the end of the movie you’re
questioning if you should be rooting for Stephen, Morris, Duffy, Paul Zara
(Hoffman), or if you should be running for the hills. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending, but
I don’t think you’re supposed to know how to feel about it. I’m certainly not
happy, but once again, you’re not supposed to be happy with it. My one problem with this movie is really that
I was a bit confused by the way in which the presidential candidate nomination
process works… but being Canadian, I’ve never really understood the American
system in general, so this wasn’t really new.
Overall, a good movie, even if it isn’t exactly fun or bright.
No comments:
Post a Comment