Review of “The Ides of March” (Directed by George Clooney, 2011)

              There has been a rise in the amount of ‘political drama’ as of late. With Clooney as a director, it seems to be his main forte’ having previously released the smash hit “Good Night, Good Luck” (2006) but he seems to be lacking political satire or actual three-dimensional characters. A similar affect is present in “The Ides of March” as the enabler ‘political’ allows for an interesting plot and ‘drama’ and a subplot, however, the movie seems more of a callous and boring wreck.

              George Clooney aptly casts himself as John Morris, a brilliant liberal politician from Pennsylvania with shrewd good looks running for president. The ever handsome Stepehen Meyers (played by Ryan Gosling) as his campaign manager, is poised with the challenge of winning him the Ohio primary as he is methodical in media culture, a valuable asset to the Democratic Party. The problem with this is that Ryan Gosling has a hard time making anybody believe that even as an actor he would know anything about politics. Problems arise when he meets with Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) at a bar to discuss switching sides on the grounds the Republicans have Ohio in their pocket.

              Later, as the drama promises, Meyer’s starts an affair with intern Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) after having sex on the campaign bus. Through the awkward affair came really strange chemistry, Gosling’s character acting more like a teen heart-throb rather than a savvy political manager. Even commenting about the dangerous affair, it’s a media death-sentence, but why meet several times then?

              News of the meeting between Meyers and Duffy are threatened to be published by Ida Horowitz (Marissa Tomei) of whom Meyer’s has a rapport with. When asked to comment, he declined, asking who broke the story as the met in secrecy. Meanwhile, during Meyer’s and Stearns last meeting, she received a call at three in the morning from none other than Morris. Breaking down, she admits to an affair, and pregnancy. With all these elements and catalysts, the suspension of belief is slowly trickling down when Gosling’s character sets up a meeting in the office (though he never speaks it) to meet in an empty stairwell, saying he’ll simply ‘take care of’ the situation, and borrows campaign money ‘off the books’ to pay for ‘the procedure.’ How cookie cutter, to not make the good guy out to be a sinister baby-killer, nor damage the image of the Democratic party.

              Later, Meyer’s is fired by his senior mentor Paul Zara, who is played by the talented Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the only believable character in the story thus far. He set up the meeting to bust open the case of him meeting with the opposing side. It was out of confidence that he was fired, that he thought about switching, paranoia even. Gosling seems sad, and hurt, so playing up to the teen-heart throb character again, he tries to switch back to Duffy, a move of which is reasserting that Meyer’s isn’t a savvy political entrepenuer, but rather a hot-headed twenty year old stuck in a thirty year olds body.

              The main problem with the story is apparent: Too much going on, too hard to believe, too boring to care. The acting in the film is far from believable, the film is poorly casted (other than Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and too convoluted for even a simple plot summary. The twists in the story come in two layers as two different stories are being told: One, Gosling is playing an internal conflict, and a political one. The relationship with Wood’s character is ridiculous: this is hardly relevant in the film until Morris’ affair begins, it’s a useless scene, its a useless romance. It’s not until Stephen Meyer’s get a chip on his shoulder when the intern commits suicide after the ‘procedure’ due to fear of being hailed by the press and becoming exposed in the affair. Later on, Meyer’s confronts Morris, gets his job back, Zara is fired, he is made into the senior advisor, and Morris wins the primary. ‘Why?’ is the question, why does Gosling’s character even care anymore?

              It’s a movie that’s is more like an abstract painting in moving format: other than way to much going on, it also lacks a central focus. “The Ides of March” tries hard to comment on the media dictation of politics by using real, fictional events, however, fails to deliver any sort of message or story.