You may feel the need to shower after seeing The Ides of March. The film’s marketers could have repurposed No Country for Old Men‘s tagline, “There are no clean getaways,” because in the cutthroat political stage on display here, nobody gets out without slinging not just mud, but probably some raw sewage as well. This is grim, ugly material, and while none of it should come as any shock, there is some surprise in the notion that a slick, star-powered political thriller, made by the Hollywood left about political progressives, could be quite this pessimistic.
Directed and co-written by George Clooney, based on Beau Willimon’s 2004 play, Farragut North (which was itself loosely based on Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential primary run), the film takes place over the course of a single week leading up to a decisive Democratic primary in Ohio. Either candidate could potentially lock things up with a win in the state, and the film centers on Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), the media director for the campaign of Pennsylvania governor Mike Morris (Clooney). Meyers and Morris are both portrayed, initially, as uncompromising idealists, in a campaign that is visually obviously mean to evoke Barack Obama’s 2008 run, complete with Shepard Fairey-style posters of Morris emblazoned with the single-word slogan, “BELIEVE.”
But “uncompromising” quickly gives way to “win at all costs” and “every man for himself,” as the quickly shifting machinations create dire crises that have to either be dealt with swiftly, strategically, and often, shadily. Meyers initially finds himself in a tug of war between his own campaign, led by campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the opponent’s, led by Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti). Duffy wants to poach him with the primary days away, and Meyers, even though he has no intention of jumping ship, makes the mistake of taking a clandestine meeting. Things are all downhill from there, and the film becomes a study in the complete destruction of one man’s entire system of ideals over the course of days, if not hours.
Sure, there are no grand revelations here. The fact that the political arena is as desperate and Darwinian as any jungle and that campaigns are filthier than the sewage pipes below Ben’s Chili Bowl isn’t exactly film at 11! material. But what the film may lack in profundity, it more than makes up for in well-crafted, smart thrills, with a first rate ensemble of performers. Giamatti and Hoffman, as the duelling campaign managers, need only stare one another down from opposite sides of the stage after the movie’s opening debate to demonstrate the intensity they’ll bring to their roles.
Gosling, after an opening act that finds him working his natural charms just as effectively as his director and co-star Clooney, shifts into a tightly wound, internally-focused performance reminiscent of the tone he took last month in Drive. Once the betrayals begin piling up and he’s forced to become exactly the person his character would be horrified by at the start of the movie, his internal tension is what powers the film along.
While not as visually inventive as his first two films as director, this is a welcome rebound from the lackluster Leatherheads for Clooney. He directs cinematographer Phedon Papamichael to fill the film with rich noir-ish shadows that help to give it the proper dark mood. There’s very little in the way of dry political wonkery here, which may have some crying foul for some slight overdramatizations; but this is a classic thriller at its heart, and Clooney knows when to deploy the gloomy moodiness of the ’70s political films to which it aspires.
His own character takes a back seat for most of the film, there mostly to deliver inspirational speeches that he then uses to contrast the ugly dealings going on behind the scenes. The effect is rarely subtle; in one case he cross cuts between his speech and an argument between Hoffman and Gosling, with the two of them appearing in dark silhouette against the American flag that is the candidate’s backdrop. But as high-drama theater, it tends to work.
There are plenty of places one could probably nitpick, particularly around some odd decisions regarding Evan Rachel Woods’ Molly, a campaign intern who winds up figuring prominently in some of the eventual unraveling of things. But mostly this is just a solid piece of work from everyone involved, and worth it just to see a group of actors of this calibre all delivering fantastic performances. Just don’t go in thinking that the double charm offensive of Clooney and Gosling is going to leave you walking out of the theater with any warm fuzzies. Their pivotal scene together is cold, hard and dispiriting, and enough to make you no longer care who wins the primary, because everyone in this movie loses.
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The Ides of March
Directed by George Clooney
Written by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon, based on Willimon’s play, Farragut North
Starring Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei
Running time: 101 minutes
Rated R for pervasive language.
Opens today at theaters across the area.
