Movie Review: "Ides of March"

Ides of March

Directed by: George Clooney

Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Phillip Seymour Hoffman,
Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei
Rated: R for pervasive language

Naivety is one of the most damaging traits a human can have, but in politics it’s a sure death. Few films recognize this as George Clooney’s new political drama Ides of March, which features an all-star cast of Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marissa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Clooney, himself. While the film, based off of Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North”, still features Clooney’s ever politically liberal base, this movie focuses more on what goes on behind a campaign rather than in front of it. Probably the best trait of the film is how it destroys the naïve bubble of political integrity without fully settling into the pessimism that grips most blue-collar Americans today. The message is clear: while we need people of integrity and honesty, politics is politics, and no savior figure is ever the exception to that rule. Gosling and Wood’s characters learn this lesson, that there is no saving grace in the political world and, because of it, the game of politics is ruthless to the lives of those involved. Clooney wisely chose the title Ides of March named after the day that Julius Caesar was betrayed by the other Roman politicians. In essence: in order to survive politics, you must be the ruthless politician willing to stab others in the back. While the film boasts terrific performances from it’s cast (with the slight exception of a somewhat stale Evan Rachel Wood), it’s hard to find the film entertaining, exciting, or even enjoyable. The realism of the political world’s fakery is just too frightening.