Skip to main content

The Ides of March

Gosling, Clooney, Hoffman, Giamatti, Tomei and Wood.  The bar was set so high before sitting down, I wonder if the movie ever stood a chance.  The political film takes a look at the nomination process through the eyes of campaign managers. Those who hide their candidates flaws and promote their strengths, despite whether they truly believe or not.

We're led to believe that Gosling is a morally sound, unflappable man, with high standards and integrity, but we soon see that he is all about advancement.  Although the movie seems to grasp to maintain his ethical makeup.  Hoffman and Giamatti are good as rival, veteran managers and they give subtle performances that, aside from one scene, left me wanting more.

Clooney is believable as the candidate, especially since he seems to be preaching his own personal beliefs within the films.  Tomei is solid, but I wish there was more to her character. Wood continues to shine, both aesthetically and in her roles, but she too wasn't a big enough character.  It's rare that I saw this, but at an hour and 50 minutes, I felt like I needed more. A little more character depth would have gone a long way.

In the end, the movie falls short of the greatness expected and basically becomes watchable and entertaining, but did little to make me love it.  When the greatest scene in a movie is one where two characters are not actually seen on camera, one has to wonder.  I have to believe this must have been a play that simply didn't translate to the big screen.  One other huge blunder was in the title, because it leads one to believe there might be a different ending, even if only metaphorically.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo
10 comments
Read more

11 Rules of Life - Bill Gates?

I read this on Facebook this morning.  A friend had posted it and said that every child should have to receive this. I of course read it and started to think.  I immediately wondered who really wrote this, as I rarely see things like this attributed to the proper person.  I immediately found it was written by Conservative Charles J. Sykes when he wrote a book about how America is dumbing down our youth.  I read it twice and started to wonder how true it was.  Below is a link to the actual picture I saw. So let's look at each of the rules and analyze them. Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it! - Life is not fair in that we are not all afforded the same opportunities based on race, creed, color, socio-economic background, but in general, those who are afforded the same opportunities to succeed are very often rewarded for their individual efforts.  Sure there may be underlying circumstances, but hard work is proven to pay more often than not and those who strive for succ
Post a Comment
Read more

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her
7 comments
Read more