Review of J. Edgar (2011) by Shae G — 20 Sep 2013

I'm not sure whether to call this a miscalculation on Eastwood's part or not. In the simplest sense, this is a perfectly serviceable biopic with all the typical virtues and faults of the genre. Di Caprio does a good job, and if you know little to nothing about Hoover, you'll know more coming out of it. Like your standard biopic, it fixates on a couple of Hoover's character traits and rides them throughout the loosely plotted story of his life. It's not very satisfying, but biopics seldom are.

On the other hand, if Eastwood is known for anything, he's known for being a fairly tight and disciplined director and that's really not the case hear. The film is long, big and meandering. Maybe you kind of expect that from this kind of film, but you don't from Eastwood. In that sense, it's even more disappointing than normal.