The Ides of March (2011)

[Frayed Knot]

Written and directed by George Clooney, he also casts himself as Democratic Governor (from PA) Mike Morris in the midst of a run for president.
Philip Seymour Hoffman runs his campaign
Paul Giamatti runs the camp for the opposing Democrat hopeful
And Marisa Tomei is the NYTimes political reporter aggressively digging for the next scoop

So with all that fire power the movie centers around Ryan Gosling as the young calculating brains to PSH's more passionate guts on Senator Morris's campaign committee.
The hi-jinx ensues when a back-stabbing power struggle emerges for control of the campaign just as the Ohio primary appears to hold the key to the nomination and eventually the presidency (the unseen Republican challenger is dismissed as a turkey).

So all this intrigue and double-crossing adds up to ...








... not all that much I'm afraid.
I found the stories of how the campaign pros go about screwing each other only mildly interesting and sometimes not all that well explained.
And I suppose the overall moral of the story is that politics can be a dirty business, killing idealism as it goes. -- gee, thanks George! -- but even aside from not telling us much we didn't already know it lacked both the intrigue and the complex characters of, say, Clooney's vastly superior 'Michael Clayton'

Edited January 18, 2012 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

Ugh.

[Vic Sage]

it was ok; not much more than that.

the difference between this and THE CANDIDATE, in which Redford's idealistic young politician is co-opted by the candidate's amoral political operative, is that this presents an idealistic young political operative co-opted by an amoral politician.

I preferred THE CANDIDATE. by a lot.

[Frayed Knot]

I've been meaning to check out THE CANDIDATE again one of these days seeing as how I saw it once like a million years ago and remember little.

At times in this one it seemed like Clooney/Morris campaign speeches were included for the purpose not of advancing the plot but so George could capture the unofficial title of leading ersatz political hero of the left since the cancelation of WEST WING took Martin Sheen's President Bartlet out of the running.

[Guest themetfairy]

It was watchable but heavy handed. Not nearly worth the accolades it has received.

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: At times in this one it seemed like Clooney/Morris campaign speeches were included for the purpose not of advancing the plot but so George could capture the unofficial title of leading ersatz political hero of the left since the cancelation of WEST WING took Martin Sheen's President Bartlet out of the running.

Natch.

[bmfc1]

What a cast! And yet, it didn't add up to much. At the end, I said "and...."