Review: Ides of March

Columbia Pictures

In The Ides of March George Clooney plays Governor Mike Morris, a left wing politician with the strength of his convictions; he’s running for president using a straight talk campaign that delights his young lieutenant, Stephen (Ryan Gosling). “You drank the Kool-aid!” reporter Ida (Marisa Tomei), tells the young acolyte. “I drank the Kool-aid, and it was delicious,” responds Stephen with a grin. He’s working for Morris because he loves his country and it’s the right thing to do. There’s a real charm to his nearly naïve conviction, but there’s also a sense that it can’t survive the rough and tumble campaign. 


The movie covers the few days prior to the Ohio Democratic primary, a race Morris needs to win to sew up the Democratic nomination. His single opponent is lagging behind but there’s a trump card to play: both candidates are hoping to pick up the endorsement of a powerful Senator (Jeffrey Wright, in a brief but convincing performance) who controls enough delegates to swing the tide. 

Morris’s campaign manager Paul (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is confident he can talk the Senator into joining their camp, but his opposite number Tom (Paul Giamatti, at his creepy best) is equally sure he can get the man’s endorsement. And Tom has another trick up his sleeve – he hopes to steal Stephen, a crack media mind, once he can convince the young idealist that the Morris cause is lost.

It’s a good story, and the back room politics feel authentic; the whole thing gives you the sense of being an insider at a critical moment in a presidential campaign. Even if you’re just a regular citizen voter, you easily see the significance of what is at stake here, and the myriad small decisions and unexpected missteps that can cause one candidate or another to become the leader of the free world. In that sense, it’s a pretty cool roller coaster ride.

But the movie has a purpose, to show up the dark underbelly of even the most idealistic campaign, and it’s here where things get a little rocky. Stephen’s slide from innocence to cynicism comes on a little fast, and seems almost arbitrary, like it doesn’t take much to stop believing. Likewise, when Clooney’s Morris shows his dark side it doesn’t feel quite authentic; it’s like there was a character mix up and Michael Clayton stepped in for a scene, his sudden tough guy act reminded me of that.

But this is the sort of thing that you think of later, when you stop off for a drink and get to talking about the state of our political universe. Ides of March is a good, thought provoking film, with terrific performances, particularly from Gosling and Hoffman, who plays a grizzled but determined old politico with an odd kind of grace. Also features Evan Rachel Wood as a young intern who enjoys the social side of campaigning. Playing everywhere. B