Arts & Culture
Last Night: The Ides of March
The Ides of March, the new George Clooney-directed thriller starring Clooney as an Obama-esque candidate in the Democratic presidential primary, manages to be not quite a traditional thriller, not quite a candid look at the frenetic inside workings of a presidential campaign, and not quite a film about the role of journalism in politics.
Instead, it's a jumble of Hollywood caricatures (Marisa Tomei as the "hard-nosed" girl reporter who'll go to any lengths, including blackmail, to "get the scoop"; Evan Rachel Wood as the sexpot young intern who sleeps her way to the top; Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giametti as the cynical political consultants who've seen it all; and Ryan Gosling as the idealistic young adviser, headed for a fall.
The plot, briefly: Pennsylvania Gov. Mike Morris (Clooney) is running for the Democratic presidential nomination against a cipher opponent named Sen. Pullman (Michael Mantell). His top advisor, Stephen Meyers (Gosling), "the best media man in the country," is a young idealist as in love with Morris as with the candidate's ideas, which consist of Democratic Party platitudes about health care, helping the downtrodden, and sticking it to the wealthy.
A potential scandal involving a 20-year-old intern (what else?) played by Wood, puts starry-eyed Meyers in the position of selling out his boss---or his ideals. I'll leave you to guess which way he goes.
The film is both short on real tension and long on explanation, a kind of primer for those who've missed the ideological battles between Democrats and Republicans, and between politicians and the press, over the past 30 years or so.
Want to know what a "scoop" is? The Ides of March will tell you, not once but half a dozen times. Wondering just what those shadowy "political consultants" do? Their goal is to win "no matter what the cost"---as The Ides of March will hammer into your brain repeatedly, just in case you were out getting popcorn. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? (Yes.) Want to know how primaries work? ("As goes Ohio, so goes the nation.") Can you win the ultimate prize and stay true to your principles? (No.) Does the politician's wife have more than one speaking scene? (Duh.) Will the woman who gets an abortion escape without suffering the direst consequences? (Not a chance.)
And if Ides ' characters are hackneyed, its politics are worse. I'm no enemy of liberal porn; The West Wing (seasons 1-3) remains one of the best wish-fulfillment fantasies for Democrats ever made. But Clooney's pretty, personality-free Morris is no Jeb Bartlett, and The Ides of March is no West Wing. In place of Aaron Sorkin's whiplash witticisms, Clooney's Ides offers predictable platitudes ("we're going to take our country back!") and obvious "insights" (no one gets to the top without trampling on others), all delivered over music so swelling and triumphal that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to feel much besides manipulated.
Instead, it's a jumble of Hollywood caricatures (Marisa Tomei as the "hard-nosed" girl reporter who'll go to any lengths, including blackmail, to "get the scoop"; Evan Rachel Wood as the sexpot young intern who sleeps her way to the top; Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giametti as the cynical political consultants who've seen it all; and Ryan Gosling as the idealistic young adviser, headed for a fall.
The plot, briefly: Pennsylvania Gov. Mike Morris (Clooney) is running for the Democratic presidential nomination against a cipher opponent named Sen. Pullman (Michael Mantell). His top advisor, Stephen Meyers (Gosling), "the best media man in the country," is a young idealist as in love with Morris as with the candidate's ideas, which consist of Democratic Party platitudes about health care, helping the downtrodden, and sticking it to the wealthy.
A potential scandal involving a 20-year-old intern (what else?) played by Wood, puts starry-eyed Meyers in the position of selling out his boss---or his ideals. I'll leave you to guess which way he goes.
The film is both short on real tension and long on explanation, a kind of primer for those who've missed the ideological battles between Democrats and Republicans, and between politicians and the press, over the past 30 years or so.
Want to know what a "scoop" is? The Ides of March will tell you, not once but half a dozen times. Wondering just what those shadowy "political consultants" do? Their goal is to win "no matter what the cost"---as The Ides of March will hammer into your brain repeatedly, just in case you were out getting popcorn. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? (Yes.) Want to know how primaries work? ("As goes Ohio, so goes the nation.") Can you win the ultimate prize and stay true to your principles? (No.) Does the politician's wife have more than one speaking scene? (Duh.) Will the woman who gets an abortion escape without suffering the direst consequences? (Not a chance.)
And if Ides ' characters are hackneyed, its politics are worse. I'm no enemy of liberal porn; The West Wing (seasons 1-3) remains one of the best wish-fulfillment fantasies for Democrats ever made. But Clooney's pretty, personality-free Morris is no Jeb Bartlett, and The Ides of March is no West Wing. In place of Aaron Sorkin's whiplash witticisms, Clooney's Ides offers predictable platitudes ("we're going to take our country back!") and obvious "insights" (no one gets to the top without trampling on others), all delivered over music so swelling and triumphal that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to feel much besides manipulated.
Filed under
Share
Show Comments
