Review of J. Edgar (2011) by Dawdlingpoet — 26 Nov 2021

This is quite a stylish film, set in a dark, almost film noir type tone, with low(ish) lighting and most of the film seems to be predominantly in greyscale colours - blacks and whites with few other colours clearly visible, other than skin colour. It has the feel of an early to mid 20th century crime film. I can't say I knew much at all about the titular character before I saw the film, so it was certainly somewhat enlightening. It shows his personal issues, turmoils and the like. DiCaprio does reasonably well as the head of the FBI, although I thought the makeup wasn't especially impressive as I felt I could tell where it started and ended. Also; cast wise, I admit, I was surprised to see Dame Judi Dench as his mother.

The way the film plays out makes it pretty clear how concerned and perhaps nervous (although showed via anger) he was about personal issues becoming common knowledge. Its sad that this should have been such an concern as nowadays I'd like to think that would no longer be the case but of course this film is set over 50 years ago, when things were certainly different. There were some relatively exciting frantic crime related scenes at times and I found it quite watchable overall. I found it particularly interesting to see how Mr Hoover reacted to people's assumptions and comments made about both himself and his involvement in activities relating to the FBI.

Its a bit of a slow watch, being mostly dialogue based but I did feel it was certainly thought provoking and it felt fairly solid as a film in general. There aren't a lot of especially greast aspects I suppose but it is pretty immersive I suppose, with the low lighting and a feeling of intrigue in terms of how he'd react/respond to things.

There is a certain air of suspense around, although its by no means a particularly tense or gripping watch overall but then I suppose most people watching it probably are aware of the story of the titular characters life already. Certainly J Edgar comes across as a passionate and principled person who believes wholeheartedly in the value of the FBI. Its a pretty solid watch and so I'd say its worth a watch overall if its of particular interest to you.