Review of The Ides of March (2011) by Majorbob — 16 Oct 2011

At last, a movie that Ryan Gosling actually doesn't ruin. In fact, he gives a pretty good performance up against the fine acting of George Clooney, Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The script is first rate although I found a few holes in the plot that aren't important to the movie's message. Nevertheless, once you buy into their world of dirty politics you can accept the characters' conduct and an ending which I personally found (in spite of my own political past experiences) to be quite chilling.

The weakest part of the movie is the performance of Evan Rachel Wood, who seems to be getting steady work in Hollywood even though she is probably the worst actress under the age of 30. I would much rather have seen Jennifer Lawrence or Blake Lively as the seductive political intern, who turns a mundane campaign movie into a morality play that says a lot (and maybe too much) about the broken system of choosing our government's leaders. George Clooney keeps trying to make statements with many of his films and this one will hit a real sore spot with political purists. Whether you line up with the "Red Staters" or the "Blue Staters" the mud being wallowed in by these characters is really apolitical even if their politics tend toward the left. Governor Moore (Clooney's role) could just as easily have been a flaming conservative from Texas as a liberal from Pennsylvania. The game is the same on either side of the aisle and the temptations and rewards are just as great.