During the Bush administration, people would sigh and say they wished Martin Sheen’s character on The West Wing were really the president. Expect a similar response to the new political intrigue drama, The Ides of March, with its iconic liberal candidate played with cunning charm by George Clooney.
Clooney not only stars as Democratic Gov. Mike Morris, with perfectly polished talking points, but he produced, directed and co-wrote the film with his Good Night, and Good Luck collaborator Grant Heslov and with Beau Willimon, author of the off-Broadway play Farragut North, on which the movie is based.
It is a Clooney to be sure, but the main character is really Morris’s press aide, Stephen Myers (the ubiquitous Ryan Gosling), a young, savvy ferret who eats, drinks and breathes politics, yet over the course of a tough Ohio primary he learns that he may not be as smart and wily as he thinks he is.
The film’s screenplay has the taste of authenticity — Willimon was on Howard Dean’s campaign staff during his aborted run for the White House — even if it has little new to say beyond the obvious notions that politics is messy and fueled by treachery.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the adaptation to the screen is how well the Morris character has been integrated into the story, where he is only referred to but never seen in the play. And Clooney keeps getting better and better as a director, managing here to fill the movie with words — even speeches — without it ever feeling static or stagy.
He also has excellent taste in casting and knows, as perhaps only an actor can, how to get the most from his A-list performers. In addition to Gosling, there is the canny Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gosling’s boss, Morris’s campaign manager, who claims to value loyalty above all else, and Paul Giamatti as Hoffman’s opposite number on the rival staff, the guy who sets Gosling’s downward spiral in motion by inviting him for a drink, ostensibly to persuade him to jump ship and work for the other side.
Ever since the Clinton era, no political saga can be complete without an alluring intern. In this case, it is dewy-eyed Evan Rachel Wood as a well-connected coffee-toting assistant who understands her value as a sex object. Still, the film substantially softens the character compared to its stage version, turning her into more of a victim than a seductress. And then there is Marisa Tomei, as a New York Times political columnist, whose subplot succinctly captures the symbiotic antagonism betweens pols and the media.
With Gov. Morris’s speeches and town hall meeting sound bites speaking of gay marriage and redistribution of wealth, The Ides of March feels ripped from today’s headlines. Still, this is not a film that should feel dated quickly. For at its core, it is a parable on loyalty and moral codes, and you should see it.
THE IDES OF MARCH. Director: George Clooney. Cast: George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood. Rated: R. Distributor: Cross Creek Pictures. Showing: At area theaters.