My thoughts on: The Ides of March

Put in simple terms for those who haven't heard of this film, its based around an American political campaign. The guy who writes the scripts for the candidate finds out something not too good and he is faced with the decision to either jump ship to the other party or stay true to the man he no longer respects.



The film stars Ryan Gosling (Drive) who seems to have had a really good year in film, and George Clooney (who also directs the flick, while managing to maintain a fairly active role within the film). These two actors are both of pretty high calibre and with the effort gone in to making the campaign seem believable it certainly ticks the box of not looking at this film as though it has actors, it certainly seems real life.

As I mentioned earlier, the effort gone in to the 'propaganda' of the election is pretty sweet, in fact I could entirely see them being used in real life, From the slogan "I like Mike" to the poster of Clooney used for election (closely resembling the Obama Hopeless campaign).

The problem with the film stems from about the first 45 minutes to an hour or so. The film is incredibly heavy to follow, to the point I had to keep stopping the film and making sure I was on the right track with what was going on, names are tossed around and American election slang used in such quick succession it's not at all difficult to lose your way through it all. A knowledge of the political parties of America would have also been pretty handy (took me a while to realise the 2 people running in the election are actually on the same party! Oops) but then again considering this is an American film brought over to the UK maybe that problem doesn't hold much water in the country it was intended to be viewed in.

Once the plot actually gets going then they slow down with bombarding you with all the election dribble and let the drama of behind the scenes unfold and take centre stage. Theres a fantastic piece of film imagery, with Clooney (the man running in the election by the way, and the head of the party Gosling works for) on stage giving a speech about why people should vote for him, and behind him is a hung up American flag acting as the backdrop of the stage. During his speech we are taken to behind the flag where an argument between Gosling and another character is happening that is a tipping point to the whole of Clooney's efforts.

The nifty bit behind the flag

And that in essence is the whole backbone of the film. This takes us inside the workings of something so well presented on the outside and shows us the double crossings and betrayals of trust that go along with something as important as an election. At the start the film is very slow and draggy (perfectly highlighted by the first minute or so when we watch a man on a slow raising platform for about 30 seconds to show the dull nature we'd expect from Gosling's job) but teaches you not to trust anyone you meet, not even if they're working for the same candidate as you. Any friends Gosling thinks he has soon turn to enemies and very irrational decisions are made.

If we actually look at the plot its all pretty plausible, the secret is dark enough to bring Clooney down and Gosling's actions make perfect sense so on my believability scale (patent pending) it scores pretty high. The only gripe I have with the film is that (minor spoilers) someone in the film dies, to me it doesn't really feel necessary and only works to bring the tone down to something rather sinister and works to create a pretty intense showdown between 2 people in a kitchen. Beyond that it feels shoehorned in to me and denies the possibility of a nice ending to Gosling.

Gosling looking lonely and a look
 at those campaign posters

Which brings me to my last thing to talk about, the ending. This film decides on the bittersweet ending and leave everything up in the air and nothing resolved. In most films this annoys me but here its entirely valid, it highlights that there can be no closure to an event such as this because it will repeat itself in another fashion, and in a world where everyone wants you to fail there can be no simple fairytale fix. It highlights how in the cutthroat world of politics you have to put your moral compass on the shelf any play dirty to survive.

My favourite part of the film - The very symbolic ending, I also love the DVD case cover (First picture) as a means to highlight the truth behind the face the voting people will know, and highlight the whole film in one simple shot.

My Rating - 8/10 } Worth a watch, but keep with it while it tries like a rodeo bull to throw you off into the ring of confusion.

-James