Films > DVD Reviews

The Ides of March

16/04/12

The American right is in the process of choosing between a Mormon, a racist and a homophobe to face Obama at the next Presidential election. That’s not the plot of the film, that’s really happening. However, the release of this excellent political drama is pointedly timed to coincide with this four-yearly git-fest. It’s also March, so that works, too.

Ryan Gosling plays a gifted and ambitious campaign-manager trying to secure the Democratic nomination for George Clooney’s whiter-that-white senator. When Evan Rachel Wood (et tu, Beauty!) arrives as the spunky intern things go, quite literally, tits-up. The ensuing machinations, sabotages, downfalls, uprisings and assassinations are played out in Bardly style by the excellent cast (personal favourites Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti are on fine form) and give us an absorbing glimpse at the ugly underbelly of American politics.

There were some justified rumblings when the film’s pre-Oscar buzz failed to manifest in any important nominations. Gosling shows why he is man-of-the-moment more convincingly than in his robot-for-ninety-minutes-then-stamp-on-a-head performance in Drive, and the promise Clooney showed as a Director in his brilliant Good Night, and Good Luck is back in evidence. Like Obama, it is stylish and intelligent; like Bush, it is twisty and dense; and, like Kennedy, it is expertly shot.

So, if you like snaking tales of Machiavellian intrigue with fruity Shakespearian undertones, you could do a lot worse than this. Enjoy!

Jay Freeman