The Ides of March [M]

It’s the final days of a roaring and heated political campaign and Steve, a trusted, smart, and up-and-coming press secretary finds himself caught up in a scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency as well as his own job and political future. Armed with determination, integral knowledge, and a heated sense of personal revenge, Steve is not going to let a little thing like sexual scandal and political treason put a damper on his day. 

A fairly short film directed by George Clooney, The Ides of March was a film that I hired really for the purpose of being able to say to my customers “yeah I’ve seen it”. I’m not a political person, I wouldn’t see a film just because George Clooney directs or stars in it, and really this movie had no initial appeal to me whatsoever. But I hired it, I watched, and whoa, I really liked it. Based on a play and a fantastic mixture of politics, personal relationships, treason, and revenge, The Ides of March is a really good movie. 

It’s the final days of a roaring and heated political campaign and Steve, a trusted, smart, and up-and-coming press secretary finds himself caught up in a scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency as well as his own job and political future. Armed with determination, integral knowledge, and a heated sense of personal revenge, Steve is not going to let a little thing like sexual scandal and political treason put a damper on his day. 

I think the interesting thing about political thrillers is that, even though they deal with a content that it helps to actually know about or show some interest in, they still manage to send shivers down your spine and invoke a response from you, even if you have no clue as to what’s going on. I’m an Aussie, I don’t watch the local news let alone the world news, and I have no interest in politics at all. But, even so, this movie held my attention and still sent shivers down my spine and had me exclaiming at the screen. 

Special applause has to go to Ryan Gosling! I never jumped on the Gosling bandwagon, but I have to say that after seeing him in Crazy Stupid Love and now seeing him play this completely different character here, he’s really a good actor; the final scene at the end, he just sent shivers down my spine. Crazy. 

It has to be said that the structure of this movie is very interesting and good, in an annoying sort of way. Like quite a few of the best films and cinematic achievements, perseverance is the key and in The Ides of March, for the first 40 to 50 minutes, it seems that not much happens. But then the scandal sneaks into the plot and from there it snowballs into this wonderful mess of treason, revenge, and scandal. And this is all done subtly, not suddenly thrown at the audience like a hot and heavy object. It’s great. 

Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, George Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, and Marisa Tomei, The Ides of March is a great movie packed with politics, drama, sex, scandal, revenge, blackmail, and a great soundtrack to boot. For a while it seems boring and uh, but persevere and you will be rewarded!