My review of "The Ides of March."

[CTyankee]

This film owes a lot to "The Candidate" and "The Sweet Smell of Success" (without the film noir aspects, altho "Ides" does have a go at noir, esp. in the confrontation scene between Gosling and Clooney). In fact, it seemed to me to be a kind of tribute to both of those movies, but for different reasons. "The Candidate" revealed the idealistic, but personally flawed, candidate and presented an existential crisis we hadn't really seen in political movies until that time. "The Sweet Smell of Success" pretty much laid out the corruption of individuals attempting to "make it" in a high stakes environment. In both movies, women lose on such a huge scale.

You get it from the movie's outset that Gosling's character, a guy on the make in political campaigns, is already pretty much destined for the route he eventually takes to "success." He has the "look" in his eyes. He spouts increasingly empty little spurts of idealism about his candidate, but you have the feeling that, at the end of the day, this guy is gonna be a real hack, just like all the rest.

The sadness of the women's roles in all this is well portrayed, from the young intern's sexual bravado masking a personal crisis, to the candidate's trusting wife, to the young "replacement" intern's brief cameo at the end of the film, carrying coffee, we get to the essential sadness and tragedy of so many women, young and a bit older, caught up in political souless-ness. Clooney's film does justice to this predicament.

While all of the performances are superb, the knockout is Philip Seymour Hoffman, in his slightly unkempt winter jacket, standing forlorn and shaken in a snowy alley after learning of the destruction of his present career. His later scene with Gosling is superb and I hope it is a performance that gets him a nod from the Oscars in the Best Supporting Actor category. Some critics have complained that this is an "actors workshop" film, but hey, what is wrong with that?

So, yes, do see this. It is cynical and the story is an old one (altho in need of retelling every generation). Don't bring your daughter up to be a political campaign intern (get DVD's of both Sweet Smell and Candidate to show relevance!) and cheer up that you are not Ryan Gosling's character or someone anywhere near him (hearing his phone call is from his father he answers saying "Don't tell me somebody died."). We've known this story all along, but its retelling is pretty damn good.

[eleny]

1. Sweet Smell is such a cringe worthy movie. Chilling

So Ides tells a different kind of political story from The Best Man. That's another one with a noire approach that comes to mind.

I like a good political thriller. I'll probably see this new one to see how current actors stand up to Burt Lancaster and Henry Fonda. Good luck to them. We like George Clooney around here, though. Hubby even said he thought his remake of Oceans was better <gasp> than the original.

:hi:

[CTyankee]

2. I don't remember too much from "The Best Man" altho I don't think it is very noir.

And, sad me, I didn't see Oceans...aaargh...

However, I did recently see Sweet Smell of Success and was very impressed by the cinematography and the acting. Tony Curtis was never better! And Burt Lancaster, what a joy!

Ides is just an update on our political system. You know the story. We all do. Go to see it not for the story (because you know it anyway) but for the acting, which is great. And to look at George Clooney (altho he allows himself at the end to be shot at ugly angles in the showdown scene with Gosling. He shows his teeth in a very primal way!).

I hope we can get back to the women's angle, though, because I really believe that women will save our political system if we can ever let them. This movie shows how delineated, how dismissed and how worthless our political system deems them.

Why do we wonder what kind of government we get as a result?

[eleny]

6. Best Man was filmed in b&w

I don't think it's noire for that reason alone but it does make you pay attention in a different way. Sort of the way On The Beach was noire because of the subject. What people were going through makes it noire, imo. The 1960s defined noire a little different. I think the mood of the country, so soon after Kennedy's assassination, made the audience a different breed to begin with. The theme of secrets in Best Man was pretty heavy duty.

But I know what you mean. Classic late 40s early 50s Robert Mitchum style noire was darker even when it was daytime.

[DesertFlower]

3. i didn't see "sweet smell" but did see the "candidate".

actually we saw it when it first came out and rented it a few months ago to refresh our memories.

we'll see the Ides when it comes out on DVD.

[CTyankee]

4. You can probably get Sweet Smell of Success, too, on DVD.

Terrific movie. Great shots in NYC. Great noir film. Excellent performances by Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster...wotta movie!

[SheilaT]

5. I saw that movie yesterday and was just blown away.

It's about a whole lot of things. I think the central theme might be what happens to idealism in the real world of politics. It's also about the changing of the guard. Clooney is amazing, and he never strikes a false not.

I did not see the movie as cynical in itself, although it was largely about the cynicism of modern politics.

I have worked in several campaigns, although not at the high level that this is about, and it seemed absolutely accurate in its depiction of campaigns.

If you want to read a totally cynical novel about politics, read "American Hero" by Larry Beinhart, which is the source for the movie "Wag the Dog". The novel is infinitely more cynical that the movie even dreams of being, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.