Clooney's 'Ides' boasts powerhouse cast
Beware this "Ides of March."
George Clooney's political drama isn't just about a Democratic governor's fight to win his party's presidential nomination in the Ohio primary.
It's a Kubrickian war movie in which Clooney plops us deep behind enemy lines so we can see how the characters move - and are moved - like pawns, castles and knights in a giant chess game controlled by the shrewdest political minds that money and ideology can buy.
But mostly money.
Clooney plays Governor Mike Morris, a handsome and articulate candidate for president. He's smooth, comfortable and smart, and he answers the toughest questions with sincerity and aplomb. He's the kind of candidate who tells you to vote for his opponent if you don't believe in him, and people love that. Especially young people.
Among them is Morris' idealistically inspired press secretary Stephen Meyers, played by Ryan Gosling, making a 180-degree turn from his quiet, dark killer in the current thriller "Drive."
Meyers tries to be pragmatic, but you can tell he really believes in the change that the Morris campaign promises.
Then he receives a phone call.
Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) wants to meet Meyers to talk about the campaign. But Duffy works for Morris' only opponent in the Ohio primary. It's a good bet that Duffy wants to hire the highly respected Meyers away from Morris.
Meyers knows he shouldn't have any contact with Duffy, but he is, after all, still powered by idealism, a quality that will be tested and found unsuitable for working in the 21st century world of <I>gotcha</I> and <I>crushya</I> politics.
"The Ides of March" has been scripted by Clooney, his partner Grant Heslov and playwright (and former Democratic campaign worker) Beau Willimon, whose 2008 stage play "Farragut North" inspired this movie.
Clooney cast his cautionary drama with a first-rate group of actors who slip effortlessly into their characters.
Marisa Tomei flits in and out as a seriously friendly political reporter who delivers foreshadowing pieces of insight, such as the time she tells Meyers not to get too high on Morris. "He'll let you down sooner or later," she says.
It happens somewhere between the two. And it involves a looming sex scandal - shades of the Clinton administration! - which would almost be a cliché, but one constantly reaffirmed by real-life political candidates from both sides of the aisle.
Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as Morris' campaign manager and Meyers' mentor Paul Philip, navigate the metaphorical smokey backrooms of their domains with Shakespearean stealth.
Evan Rachel Wood's Molly Stearns makes for a fetching Democratic intern not adverse to the idea of power as an aphrodisiac, even if it's only on the level of a politician's press secretary.
Clooney, directing his fourth motion picture, has been tailor-made for Morris, who comes off as a Obama-esque candidate for change, but one with a Mr. Hyde persona hidden from public view.
The end of "Ides of March" suggests that things have been tightly bundled up by a reinvented, more ruthless Meyers.
But in fact, an easily traceable prescription for a fatal medication sticks out like a sore loose end, threatening to take the story in a new direction the moment the closing credits end.
In this movie, with political power comes not responsibility, but political cynicism.
<b>“The Ides of March”</b>
★ ★ ★
Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright
Directed by: George Clooney
Other: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated R for language. 98 minutes