Cynical Ides a Political Maelstrom
The amount of cynicism on display in director, co-writer and star George Clooney’s latest enterprise The Ides of March is without measure. Like The Best Man, like The Candidate, heck, even like The Manchurian Candidate, this story of an idealistic staffer working on the staff of a Democratic Party Presidential hopeful doesn’t take any prisoners and doesn’t cut anyone, liberal or conservative, red or blue, an ounce of slack. It has disdain for the process, showing the inherent hypocrisy living inside the political system and the corruptive influence it can have on the lives and mores of seeming innocents caught up within its withering whirlpools of self-aggrandizement.
Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March © Sony Pictures
At the same time, based on the acclaimed play Farragut North written by Beau Willimon, the icy cold nature of so much of what is going on almost can’t help but leave the viewer at something of a distance. The movie has a clinical glare that borders on the overwhelming, and while Clooney and company cut a razor-sharp acidic swath the emotions it welled up within me were more ones of relative bemusement than they were anything else. While the movie doesn’t necessarily do anything wrong, per se, the forgone nature of it all is somewhat disenchanting, the constant pounding of the 24-hour cable news three-ring circus somewhat diluting the film’s ultimate impact.
Yet there is value here, lots of it, The Ides of March in most respects easily Clooney’s best effort behind the camera since his masterful Good Night, and Good Luck. This is as intelligently structured, and intimately layered and as exquisitely acted a motion picture as any we have seen this year, everything about it reeking of class and precision. Not once did I feel bored or led astray as I was sitting there watching this one, the movie concluding with a dynamite image that is as haunting as it is prescient.
Additionally, the movie once again showcases the mesmerizing talents of star Ryan Gosling. If any man is having a better 2011 than he I’m not sure who it would be, for like in Crazy, Stupid, Love, like in Drive, the man dominates the film in a way that borders on the transcendent. He’s Stephen Meyers, second to campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and trusted aid to Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), so sure of his candidate’s perfection when cracks in façade begin to show the shattering effect they have upon him hurt like no tomorrow. Gosling makes this man crumble, makes this man bleed, makes him rise from the ashes and becomes something feral, almost unthinkable, his Phoenix-like rebirth a political parable indicative of everything many feel is wrong with the democratic process as it now stands.
But everyone here is good, especially Evan Rachel Wood as a sexy young intern whose feminine wiles cast a far bigger spell than the one Meyers has enveloping him. Her journey is equally as devastating, and how it moves things forward, rushing proceedings towards their almost inevitable conclusion, is emotionally striking to say the least. This is the best the young starlet has ever been and hints at the kind of performances we can hopefully expect from her in the future, the promise tantalizingly glimpsed in films as diverse as The Missing, The Wrestler and Thirteen gloriously come to fruition.
So what’s the problem? There really aren’t any, save for the fact Clooney and company are so driven to be as clinical and as impartial as possible the impact of all this wheeling, dealing and underhanded Machiavellian finagling can’t help but be lessened because of it. Yet The Ides of March is so well made, so perfectly acted and delivers so many nerve-wracking moments of intelligent suspense it almost can’t help but be worthwhile, and let the record show I’m voting in favor of seeing it, maybe more than once.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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