The Ides of March

Have you ever watched a movie and wanted it to continue on, to entrance you in its world and characters for just a tiny bit longer? I felt that way as the end credits begin to roll for The Ides of March. I felt like much the true dramatic possibilities and action were just now being brought to a boil as it ended. I felt like there was even more places to go with this storyline, and like it could have taken me on a grander journey. It’s very good, but it could have been great.

Not to join in on the massive throngs of people sucking George Clooney’s dick, but I have always liked him as an actor and as a carrier of megaton charisma and movie star weight. I have tremendous respect for him ever since he decided to put his enormous clout behind projects like this, Good Night, and Good Luck (another movie that could have been even longer and I wouldn’t have minded), The Descendants, Up in the Air and Michael Clayton. That’s a resume filled with risks and grand ambitions of artistry in film. And he’s one hell of an actor in the “Golden Age” tradition – he takes an archetype that is very “George Clooney” on the outside, and twists it around and inside out to reveal unique and interesting things about the character in a very subtle way.

His crooked politician here is no different. Beneath that all-American silver fox exterior lies a cold, calculating and domineering personality that doesn’t care who get slaughtered on his road to victory. His midnight showdown with Ryan Gosling is riveting stuff, watching two actors perform a masterful give-and-take with minimal vocal and emotive inflections. Of course, when you have a powerhouse cast of actors like this, to say the acting is of the highest caliber seems like a “No shit, Sherlock” phrase. The true revelation is Evan Rachel Wood, normally cast as the rebellious, free-spirited girl and is excellent in that role, as a naïve intern who gets crushed and tossed aside by the callous system and those ensuring that it runs smoothly.

Though economically told, it doesn’t present anything particularly new or exciting about the American political system that many of us don’t already know, or at least suspect. It concerns itself more with attitudes of loyalty within the system, and those pundits and writers on the periphery who help spin quotes and stories out however they see fit depending on who will give them the best favors. The real charms and glories in the film come from the precise way in which the drama is slowly delivered out, and the top-notch group of actors assembled. I just wish it had actually been another hour longer, because it ends right as the all of the dramatic elements seems to be reaching a unique climax and emotional fallout. It could have gone to a darker, more dramatically rich place.