Movie Review: The Ides of March

It’s been a busy few weeks for Ryan Gosling. He fronted the idiot-misleading, lawsuit-provoking action-romp Drive whilst also acting as the ladykiller to Steve Carell’s shy guy in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Most good-looking young American actors could probably pull off that character range. In The Ides Of March however, Gosling is presented with the task of fronting a cast boasting some of the best American actors of recent times, under the direction of an increasingly competent and interesting George Clooney, in a political thriller based on an acclaimed stage play. This is no small task, and it’s also no small movie.

The Ides Of March sneaks behind the scenes of the race for the Democratic primary in Ohio (essentially the vote to see who will be the next Democratic Party Presidential candidate) and follows the campaign team of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney). Morris seems the perfect candidate and electoral wunderkind Stephen Meyers (Gosling) is ideologically and idealistically dedicated to his boss. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the experienced, press-savvy campaign chief Paul Zara, who has taken Meyers under his wing and shows him the ropes of his first big campaign. Together they pit their wits against opposing campaign leader Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) in the race for the party’s nomination. The plot follows the trials, smear campaigns, backstabbing, behind-closed-doors deals and general unpleasantness of modern electoral politics. Without giving too much away, Meyers is presented with decisions early-on which could colour all of his important relationships, and the plot focuses on his personal transformation from idealistic young go-getter to cynical, seasoned politico. Throw in a few personal back stories and a healthy dollop of fast-talking Washington speak and you end up with a film trying desperately to fill the void left by the West Wing, but without the actual power element, or the script-writing skills of Aaron Sorkin.

This is a political film laced with political references; the play from which it is adapted is called ‘Farragut North’, a reference to the Metro station near many Washington political think tanks, while there is often reference to how many Electoral College seats can be won and so forth. If you aren’t well versed in these matters, don’t worry, they don’t make up the meat of the film nor do they impinge upon the human story in the same way that they did in, say, Recount. At its heart this is a story about how everybody in politics is corrupted by power. The problem with this story is that it has been done before, and not just this general theme. Primary Colours takes essentially the same moral story, and even some of the same details, and comes out with a more coherent whole. The title, The Ides Of March, is obviously a reference to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the classic Anglophone tale of political intrigue, ambition and betrayal, and while The Ides of March certainly has Shakespearean pretensions it simply fails to deliver on too many fronts to be classed as an unqualified success. There are a number of important characters whose backstories are either only hinted at or never explored at all. The only major female role in the film, Evan Rachel Wood’s confident intern Molly, is reduced to a simple foil for the male characters bartering and sniping, a simple plot-device which, either by virtue of editing necessities or by design, perfectly displays the current role of women in the boys’ club that is politics. Meanwhile, Morris’ wife appears in possibly 3 scenes. Even Marisa Tomei, a seasoned and talented actress, is reduced to a one-dimensional, quick-thinking hack who serves only to instigate some decisions for the male leads, while gleefully lapping up whatever information is tossed her way. There is little or no explanation of why these characters are where they are or do what they do, and the majority of the characters get lost in the noise and fury of campaign managers’ various machinations. So much in this film is left unexplored or unsaid that it probably would have been better adapted as a mini-series rather than a feature film.

In spite of these flaws, the acting performances from the three main leads are really engaging, and it is these performances which keep the tension rolling throughout. Clooney’s appearances are so brief as to hardly be worthy of appraisal, but when his character (who doesn’t appear in the stage version) is in focus he essentially acts and says exactly what you would expect George Clooney himself to do and say were he an electable politician; he plays an uberliberal who is somehow deemed to be palatable to the American public. Hoffman and Giamatti, while probably both understretched and underused, are fantastic as the seasoned pros of the campaign circuit who are both Machiavellian and ingenious in their attempts to get their man the votes required for nomination. It is Gosling’s performance that takes centre-stage though. He excels not only in his transformation from naive to cynical, but also his reaction to being a young man used as a pawn by more experienced campaigners. This is not a performance for the ages, as it is not a role for the ages, but it does add another feather to an increasingly impressive cap for Gosling, and it is genuinely intriguing to see the actor flexing his muscles and coming out on top in such exalted company. While Clooney has done nothing particularly worth noting visually in directing this film, his ability to draw excellent performances from his cast is clear for all to see.

If you like political thrillers, you will like this film. If you like good acting and a few gripping scenes, there’s plenty to admire about The Ides of March. Ultimately though it is the what ifs that loom largest over this production, and at a time when the best American drama is found on the small screen, one can only wonder what might have been had the producers taken the same cast and budget to a mini-series and explored the characters and situations a bit more thoroughly. A good effort, but The West Wing it aint.