The Ides of March

I was unprepared for just how bad The Ides of March turned out to be. Simplistic and underwrittten, George Clooney's film of Beau Willimon's play Farragut North purports to be a look at what it really takes to get a President elected in this country. The movie is, in fact, stuffed with improbabilities and shaky motivations and it doesn't really add anything new to the growing file on Ryan Gosling. Gosling is playing Stephen Myers, key aide to Governor and Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Morris (Clooney). Morris is idealistically liberal to a fault and Clooney plays him with a sharp intelligence which actually makes the revelations of his behavior that come later in the film hard to swallow. The Governor character was never seen in Willimon's play; he's in the film just to move things along. The Ides of March is Ryan Gosling's show, but Gosling isn't well served by the part. Myers is a political pro but also a true believer, and we get the cliches about Kool-Aid consumption from a New York Times reporter played by an underused Marisa Tomei. Since there's nothing to be gained, why does Myers meet with the campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) of Morris' rival and then believe everything he says about shifting poll numbers? Myers' attempts to reverse the Governor's political fortunes (the movie unfolds in the week before a critical Ohio primary) and avert potential scandal lead to his dismissal from the campaign, and it's here that The Ides of March turns into the world's biggest hissy fit. Gosling isn't given a fully formed character to play, he exists only in relation to his boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the Governor. The sight of Myers burning every bridge in order to get what he wants is akin to watching a rat knock down the walls of a maze to get to cheese: it's unattractive and not very interesting. If the point of The Ides of March is that self-interest trumps all when someone is trying save their career, then I wish I'd saved my money.

There's one other character in The Ides of March worth mentioning. Molly (Evan Rachel Wood) is an intern on the Morris campaign and looking to start at the bottom in politics even though her father is the Democratic National Chairman. Molly and Stephen begin a relationship, obviously the outcome Molly desired when Wood makes her first entrance. It's good to see Wood onscreen but she too deserves better. Molly has no purpose in the film other than to provide the impetus for Gosling and Clooney's final confrontation. The movie winds her up and sends her on a proscribed path, and thinking about the motivation for her final choice leads to some disturbing conclusions regarding Clooney's view of women and politics here. The Ides of March pretends to make grand statements and contain hard truths, but it's less lived-in than a good West Wing episode and a sad misfire from talented people.