Kevin Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is a naive political consultant working for Mike Morris (George Clooney), a progressive governor running in the Democratic primary for president.
As the campaign heats up, Meyers finds his ideals challenged by the tactics of other players - including the governor himself…
Following the ambition of Leatherheads, Ides of March marks something of a retreat to familiar territory for director George Clooney.
Back to the behind-the-scenes mechanics of a public-facing individual, like Good Night, and Good Luck, only this time Clooney is interested in the backroom dealing and strategizing of political campaigns.
Based on the play Farragut North, The Ides of March is a drama about the clash of ideals and political horse-trading, in which a young up-and-comer learns some hard truths about public presentation and private ethics.
I watched Ides of March around the time it came out and it seemed to breeze on by. I remembered the outline of the story but nothing that remarkable.
Watching it this time, I was struck by its lack of originality in terms of the ideas it thinks are important.
Politics is a complex business. It involves personalities as much as it does economic and ideological priorities - this movie seems to treat this as a revelation.
From the beginning, Meyer’s obsession with Morris feels odd.
While Clooney is charismatic, there is something missing in the equation for Meyer’s faith in Morris. It almost feels like there’s a sequence missing showing Meyer before meeting Morris.
There is something underwhelming about the finale - politics is dirty and our hero has fallen. It is such an unoriginal note to end on that it makes the whole enterprise come off naive and silly.
Compared with Clooney’s prior work behind the camera, there is something resolutely unappetising about the movie - it is like a moral fable for adults, but its ultimate message is so surface-level I was almost convinced I had missed some deeper meaning.
Clooney’s previous movies showed a level of ambition - even Leatherheads was intended as a genre piece - but this is the first of his directorial efforts that is just dull. The performances are solid - it is cool to see Philip Seymor Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as competing campaign managers - but no one has a standout role or take on these characters.
A political drama without much drama or much to say about politics, Ides of March is just mediocre.
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