The Ides Of March

Like most people I know, the American democratic process can both enthral and irritate me at the same time. Despite this, it is always an interesting subject and there are a number of great films that bring this to the big screen. 

I heard about this film before I saw any trailers and was instantly intrigued and quite excited. George Clooney has seen his directorial stock rise in the last few years and Ryan Gosling is fast becoming the actor of 2011. Coupled with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Marisa Tomei and you have a potentially fantastic film.

Stephen Meyers (Gosling) is the Junior Campaign Manager for Democrat Mike Morris (Clooney) who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination in Ohio. The Democratic nomination is between Morris and Ted Pullman (Michael Mantell).

Meyers is approached by Pullman's Campaign Manager, Tom Duffy (Giamatti) to work for Pullman rather than Morris. Meyers refuses as he firmly believes in everything that Morris stands for. Duffy warns him that nothing is as it seems and he too will become jaded with the political system.

Before meeting with Duffy, Meyers tries to contact his boss, Paul Zara (Hoffman) but Zara doesn't answer his phone. When Zara calls him back, Meyers chooses not to tell him about the meeting.

There are two other additional story lines. The first where Meyers has a relationship with intern Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood), which turn leads him to find out things that make him realise that Duffy was right in his warnings. The second is about the lengths both Democrats nominees will go to gain the endorsement of Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright). 

I'm not going to give the ending away as you can probably guess for yourself what it may be, which is the main criticism that I have with this film. It is predictable and you know exactly where it is going after the first half. 

The acting is fantastic and again, Gosling shines in a role where there is a lot of focus on him. Clooney is great as Morris, playing the role with a mixture of smarm and underlying unpleasantness which was very subtly done. Hoffman was excellent as always, the script was tight, direction was appropriate and the film chugged along at a fair pace. But there was something missing. I think that had Aaron Sorkin been involved, it may have found that missing thing.

Verdict: On paper, it should be a fantastic film, but in reality, it just didn't hit the spot for me. I don't think it has anything to do with the acting, direction or the even the story to a certain extent. I just found it a bit predictable. As an aside, if you are someone who follows American politics, you are unlikely to learn anything new about politics from this film.

I'd recommend that you watch a couple of episodes of The West Wing instead...