The Ides of March

The Ides of March
Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood

Saw: October 22, 2011 with Mark

I saw a preview for this once and thought it looked really good. And who can say no to watching Ryan Gosling and George Clooney for 2 hours? Hummana Hummana!

I'm not a huge fan of politics in general but this movie intrigued me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It amazes me the nonsense and bullshit that goes into managing a campaign for any position in the government, especially what people will do to ensure that their candidate they are working for gets into office. I knew politics was all dirty work but this took an inside nosedive into the innerworkings of it all...from promising a senate seat to a major influential person who stands for everything the candidate for President is against just for votes, to covering up an affair.

I was surprised to see Evan Rachel Wood, who has changed so much since her days on Once and Again and the movie Thirteen. She has grown to be a great actress from watching her in this and as the vampire queen in True Blood. Marisa Tomei however, who is one of the greats, has a small and rather insignificant role in this film. She speaks her lines with her head tilted to the side and only contribution to the film is to expose a secret meeting between Gosling and Giamatti. For such a great actor to be put in that small of a role was disappointing.

Other than that the story was great, you wanted so badly to believe in Mike Morris (Clooney) and to believe that he was the right choice for President. You feel for Steven (Gosling) as he has to cover up an affair and you see how that weighs on him. I recommend you see this movie.

I give it 8 out of 10 stars. ********