Review: The Ides of March

With the GOP primary phase of the 2012 campaign all but over, it seems, at least in theory, the perfect time to release a film that takes on the madness behind the scenes on the trail.

George Clooney's The Ides of March is an adaptation of the play Farragut North, a play by Beau Willimon that focuses on a fictitious Democratic primary in the battleground state of Ohio. The stars might have aligned to make this film seem topical right now, but there is fault to be found. And it lies squarely with the filmmaker.

The plot sees Pennsylvania Governor Mike Morris running for the office of president of the United States. He has his campaign staff convinced he will be the next great hope for the nation, the one to "take the country back" - a phrase so often bandied about by political hopefuls - and he is neck-and-neck with his main Democratic contender, Senator Ted Pullman. When the race reaches the Buckeye State, it's make-or-break time.

Although the genre of political films is varied, a lack of action is usually a bad thing, and so it is here. There are brief snippets of Morris' interaction with potential voters along the way, a question or two during a debate or a town hall session, but by and large his positions and his personality remain a mystery to us.

Keeping in mind the title's obvious, ominous reference to the fall of Julius Caesar ("Beware, the Ides of March!"), we wait for the storm to break over the head of the powerful Governor Morris. But instead of focusing on him, the film introduces his campaign team, headed by two top strategists: veteran campaign staffer and longtime supporter Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the bright-eyed media whiz kid Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling).

As expected in a film based on a play, the performances are all exquisitely modulated - in this case, to fit the dark mood of the narrative - and the actors sparkle in their restricted capacity. For Gosling, it's a case of having nothing to do, but doing it rather well, while it is unfortunate that Paul Giamatti, who plays Pullman's campaign manager, and Hoffman get equally little screen time.

The characters have a lot of potential, but in the end each has only one big confrontational scene with Gosling, providing us with a mere taste of what could have been, had Clooney worried less about his gloomy display case and more about the exhibit itself.

There is nothing wrong with a decision to focus on the campaign staffers rather than the candidate they represent: In The War Room, a documentary that traces Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign for the White House, his strategists James Carville and George Stephanopoulos provided long stretches of electric energy and entertainment. By contrast, Clooney's film feels positively catatonic.

The first half of the film, a full hour, is mere setup of Morris' political ambitions and his firm shot at the nomination. There is much talk of delegates, primaries and endorsements, but little is of any immediate consequence, and, for much of the film, save an all-too-brief interlude with his wife in a limousine, we only see fragments of the man.

This setup is tepid, and it is easy to lose interest until the revelation, finally, that Morris has been misbehaving with an intern. This discovery leads to major disillusionment on the part of Meyers and an expectation on our side that the film might stake out Lewinsky territory. It doesn't, and things quickly take a turn for the melodramatic.

By that stage, many in the audience will have fallen asleep. The dialogue is also much more directed at a political pundit than the average viewer looking for entertainment at the cinema, and for almost anyone unfamiliar with the American political system, the film may at times seem decidedly foreign. Considering the offhand allusions to donkeys and elephants, talk about primaries and constant references to K Street, the dialogue would likely be too difficult to follow at important moments.

The Ides of March suggests voters will ultimately be let down by their candidate. Clooney, taking up the roles of politician in front of the camera and filmmaker behind it, lets down the viewers by making a film that is much less engaging than the current race for the nomination in the real world.

André Crous can be reached at
acrous@praguepost.com