Review of J. Edgar (2011) by Syl L — 27 Jul 2012

I'm going to be honest. I really had no idea who this movie was about, when I saw the trailer. Maybe because I was born in the 1990's and am a typical teenager that really doesn't look up anything historical unless told to do so. However, I did research J. Edgar Hoover and I have to say that it really does give you a better understanding of the film. Anyway, before I saw the film I had high hopes for this film, and I mean oscar worthy hopes for both Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio. Now let's get into some good and bad points.

To start off the good, Leonardo DiCaprio, is just phenomenal. I really hope that he at least gets nominated for best actor. For most of the movie I think you forget that he's a young actor and think he really is J. Edgar Hoover. The other supporting characters did give very nice performances like Josh Lucas and Naomi Watts. Sadly, however, this is the last I can say about the positive points.

To start off with the bad, this movie is just too damn long. Don't get me wrong, two hours and 15 minutes for a movie is usually fine, however, because of Clint Eastwood's slow direction the storytelling gets bogged down and we're thrown into a state of boredom. Also, the film jumps around a lot, and it doesn't add much to the story, in fact it gets very distracting. I understand that doing a biographical film about a person's life is a challenge, but there could've been a much easier and less confusing way to go about this film. One thing that bothered me throughout the entire film was the emphasis on Hoover's homosexual encounters with Charles Lindbergh. This bothered me because as I did research on the film I found out that that was just a rumor. No one had much proof that Hoover was homosexual, and to base 3/4 of the movie off of that is just plain silly. Finally, the one thing that you will here about this movie over and over again is the terrible make-up. At first, I didn't really catch it. Dicaprio's make-up wasn't terrible in my opinion as he ages, however once we get a shot of Lindbergh's face, most of the audience members almost cracked out in laughter. The make-up was so terrible that he looked like an extra to a zombie movie.

Overall, this film has it's strengths with its performances, however, the movie is filled with boredom, false accounts of history, and awful make-up. Now it is certainly not the worst film of the year, however J. Edgar is probably the most disappointing.