Early on in George Clooney’s “The Ides of March” I began to feel that I was watching another heavy-handed exercise in political persuasion wrapped up as motion picture drama. I really hadn’t read much about the movie so I didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully the story moves away from that and gets into some much more interesting territory. This movie is a behind-the-scenes look at political campaigns, the closed-door wranglings, and the ‘win at all cost’ mentalities. And while the movie does get bogged down in its own sense of self-importance, there are some really intriguing things going on here.
Clooney directs, co-produces, and co-writes this 2011 political drama. He also plays Pennsylvania Governor Mike Morris who is involved in an extremely tight Democratic Primary race against an Arkansas Senator. Morris is a prototypical politician – a talking points robot but with the charm that causes followers to swoon. Now that was my impression of him. But the movie and many of the characters see him as a true light and hope for the country. In that group is the film’s main star Ryan Gosling who plays Stephen Meyers, Morris’ junior campaign manager. He’s an idealistic young man who is smitten with Morris’ vision and the political system.
Stephen begins to have his eyes opened at how the political campaign system works especially in a primary where the stakes are so high. He’s shown the ropes by the seasoned senior campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and gets romantically involved with a campaign intern and daughter of the DNC Chairman (Evan Rachel Wood). Before long Stephen makes some critical and poor professional and personal decisions that puts him in the crosshairs of his enemies and those he thought were his friends. Several moral quandaries only complicate things for him and he quickly learns that the internal world of big politics isn’t as pure as he may have thought.
“The Ides of March” tries to be the “Wall Street” of the political campaign scene and it manages to pull it off in some instances. The whole ‘young energetic guy with big dreams comes face-to-face with reality’ angle isn’t that fresh but it works well enough. But perhaps the most entertaining parts of the film are when we get to see the inner workings of political campaigns. The jostling between the candidate’s staffs, the crunching of numbers, the state-by-state strategies, and the pursuit of pivotal endorsements are just some of the fascinating elements that Clooney is able to show us.
As the movie progresses, Clooney seems to put his foot on the throat of idealism. I appreciated what he was trying to do at this point in the movie and the statement he makes on our vision of politics and politicians is an interesting one. But basically the movie becomes a story of a bunch of bad people doing bad things because of bad choices. That works for a bit but after a while I knew I wanted more.
The movie’s strongest point lies with its cast. George Clooney is just a solid actor and he’s really good here. Hoffman is also just as good as he always is. I also really liked Paul Giamatti as the rival’s campaign manager. He feels sneaky and conniving but he definitely knows the game. Then there’s Jeffrey Wright as an opportunistic North Carolina Senator who is offering his state’s delegates to the highest bidder. It’s a small role but a really good one. But the one weak performance of the entire movie is Ryan Gosling. He does an okay job but he has no range of emotion. Sheepish grins and a few raises of his voice are about the only changes we get from him. He gives a passable performance but he could have added much more to this character.
“The Ides of March” is strange in that it doesn’t do anything really bad. But when looking at the movie as a whole it’s all over the map. The performances are strong except for the most important one and the story has too many lulls wrapped around its few high points. There’s a little bit of political preachiness but its offset by the crappy characters of those preaching it. But the biggest thing is that it’s just not as insightful and daring as it tries to be.
keithandthemovies.com 
I may have to watch this again. I remember liking the cast but that’s about it. You may be right about it being a forgettable entry from Clooney and Gosling. Good review, bro!
Thanks man. It had a great cast. Too bad it just didn’t hold water. The good seemed to always be offset by the bad.
I haven’t seen it but it’s interesting that you find it hard to put what you disliked about it into words. Sometimes I think a few really great elements (great casting, a few highly memorable scenes, etc) can go a long long way .
What you say is very true. Those things can indeed carry a film. The problem here is that the film just couldn’t seem to stick with what worked. I started drifting off in directions that quite frankly were quite dull. And Gosling is a real snooze here. That didn’t help things either. And at the end of the film I felt nothing. No excitement. No frustration. Just nothing.
Good review Keith. Very well-acted flick, and also incredibly well-written. However, that twist in the middle changes things and has it become less of an interesting critique on modern-day politics, and more of your standard melodrama. Not that bad of a melodrama, but still pretty disappointing since it seemed like it was headed in such the right direction.
It was really clicking before throwing what worked best aside. That and another almost emotionless performance from Gosling. It’s a shame.
Couldn’t agree more here bro. I liked it but it could have been a lot tighter and a bit more dramatic. There were too many lulls and despite the strong cast, none of them were really let loose. The best thing about the film was its poster.
YES! I love that comment. The best thing was that great poster. Well said my friend.
It’s was good one, though, wasn’t it? If posters won awards, then this would have been the film of the year. 😉
No doubt. Great concept. Looks fantastic.
Hmmm… I wonder about this one. I have not watched it, though I should maybe check it out at the very least.
It’s decent but its nothing I would rush out to see. Definitely not enough there to cause me to rush back.
Hmmmm… well then I will just see if it ever happens or not, won’t make that specific effort 🙂
I actually have this sat at home ready to watch. I have other stuff higher on the list though and I think it might end up staying that way for a while! Nice write up man.
Thanks. I wouldn’t move it ahead of some other movies which I bet are better!
Nice review. I would probably give it the same rating as well. I thought the performances were great, but I found it to be too standard and melodramatic.
And isn’t it a shame? So much was there. It should have been a great movie. Unfortunately….
Hey Keith, great write up as usual. I do recall liking this a lot more than you did. Maybe because I expected literally nothing from this, and I usually don’t watch movies like this. I thought it was exciting and interesting.
You’re right that Gosling doesn’t emote much, but I felt that was on purpose, especially when you know the range he is capable of. Given that he’s playing a diplomatic fixer, it would make sense that a lot of his reactions regarding having doubt, questions and suspicions are reacted to with more cautious neutrality than any other emotions. I thought anyways. You can see my earlier, gushing ‘review’ below.
Hey thanks for checking it out. I’ll definitely read your take on it. As for Gosling, I really think he needed more range in this performance. But honestly I’m not sure he has it in him. I know Gosling has become a huge fan favorite but there have only been a couple of films where he has hinted at any type of emotional range. I’m just not as big on him as many are.
I didn’t hate this one but yeah, it wasn’t all that memorable to me either Keith. I’m glad that I’m not the only one NOT impressed w/ Gosling, he’s fine here but I think Philip Seymour Hoffman was far more memorable.
Sorry you didn’t like this one more, I actually thought Gosling’s work here was much better than what he did in Drive. Evan Rachel Wood was also excellent.
I agree about Wood. She was really good. To be honest she’s an actress I haven’t paid a lot of attention. She more than held her own.
it is a fantastic movie. I want to know if he was going to tell all at this final interview? that is the question someone might know.