New Release Review - The Ides Of March

Directed by: George Clooney
Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei

Not since the seventies has there been such a talent pool of quality actors.For whatever reasons most now come from non-American English speaking countries. There are however some really talented American thesps and most of them are in this film. Sadly the material just doesn't live up to it's cast, an unoriginal script with no more to say than "Politics is a dirty business".

Clooney is one of the few good things about modern Hollywood. His presence as an actor always adds an extra touch of class to a project and as a director he's proven himself capable with the excellent "Good Night & Good Luck". It's a pity then that he settled for such bland material here.
Going in I knew from the trailer that Clooney's character had some hidden secret that threatened to ruin his campaign for the Democratic nomination. I never thought it would be something so cliched as an affair with an intern. Seriously, is that the best they could come up with? The irony is that this is a film made by liberal film-makers yet it relies on it's audience having conservative views in order to become fully engaged in the story. Personally I couldn't care how many affairs a politician has once he's a good politician so I just couldn't get into this plot.
Clooney has proven he has something to offer as a director, let's hope he picks more interesting material next time.
5/10

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