After handling espionage drama in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Cold War tensions in Good Night, And Good Luck, who better to take a look at the hard knock world of Presidential campaigns that George Clooney? Unfortunately, The Ides of March (even with its allusions to Shakespeare) never quite hits the mark being a cliched film surrounded by great performances that manage to save it.
Based on the play Farragut North, a former staffer on the Presidential trail, The Ides of March
focuses on Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling), a hot shot media manipulator
working for a potential President in Governor Mike Morris (George
Clooney). However, a moment of feeding his ego during a meeting with the
rival campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) sets off a chain of events which
slowly sees Myers lose his naïve approach to politics and set on a path
of destruction.
We’ve seen presidential campaigns before and yet, here, this bright
eyed and bushy tailed press secretary suddenly loses his cool when he is
dismissed. He makes an almost Dr Jekyll like transformation which
doesn’t work in the context of the film. It’s this that pulls you out of
the film and, if it weren’t for the excellent performances from Phillip
Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as opposing campaign managers and
Evan Rachel Wood providing a human aspet (with an amazing scene as she
realises her place while sat in a hotel room), The Ides of March wouldn’t work.
Verdict: There’s a lot less to The Ides of March upon retrospect.
The elements of a political thriller are there but everything is too
neat. You could set your watch to the plot. Luckily, the performances
bring everything back together, giving you your money’s worth.
3 1/2 / 5
