The Ides of March is a 2011 American political drama thriller film directed by George Clooney from a screenplay written by Clooney, along with Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon. The film is an adaptation of Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North.
Directed by George Clooney
Produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brian Oliver
Screenplay by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Based on Farragut North by Beau Willimon
Starring Ryan Gosling
George Clooney
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Paul Giamatti
Marisa Tomei
Jeffrey Wright
Evan Rachel Wood
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) August 31, 2011 (Venice Film Festival), October 7, 2011 (Worldwide)
Running time 101 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $12.5 million
Box office $55,311,556 (worldwide)
Weekend Chart Record
Preview
Story
Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is the Junior Campaign Manager for Mike Morris (George Clooney), Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic presidential candidate, competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman (Michael Mantell). The candidates are campaigning in Ohio. A win for Morris would all but guarantee him the nomination; a win for Pullman would give him vital momentum. Both campaigns are also attempting to enlist the endorsement of North Carolina Democratic Senator Franklin Thompson (Jeffrey Wright) who can give either one 356 pledged Democratic convention delegates and, ultimately, the nomination.
After a debate, Meyers is asked for a secret meeting by Pullman's Campaign Manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti). Meyers calls his boss, Senior Campaign Manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who doesn't answer. Meyers leaves a message that something important has come up. Meyers meets with Duffy who offers him a position in Senator Pullman's campaign. Meyers refuses, and asserts that he believes in Morris. Duffy tells Meyers that his optimism won't last, and that Morris will eventually be cynical and corrupt like the other candidates. Zara calls Meyers back and asks what was important but Meyers says it was nothing to worry about.
Meyers starts a sexual relationship with Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood), an intern for Morris' campaign and daughter of Jack Stearns (Gregory Itzin), the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Late one night, Meyers discovers that Morris is trying to call Molly. She and Morris had a brief sexual liaison, at a campaign stop in Iowa several weeks previously, and Molly is pregnant with Morris' baby. Meyers helps her with money for an abortion and drives her to the clinic.
Meyers admits to Zara that he met with Duffy, who told Meyers that Pullman will offer Senator Thompson the position of Secretary of State, guaranteeing his victory by bringing hundreds of delegates with him. Ida (Marisa Tomei), a reporter for the New York Times, reveals that an anonymous source leaked his encounter with Duffy to her and that she will publish unless Meyers gives her all of the information about his meeting with Thompson. Meyers comes to Zara for help. Zara reveals that he leaked the meeting to Ida and fires Meyers from the campaign for showing a "lack of loyalty" in meeting with Duffy.
Meyers offers his services to Duffy but Duffy doesn't want to hire Meyers. In a Machiavellian scheme, Duffy admits he met with Meyers in order to induce Meyers to tell Zara about the meeting. Duffy correctly predicted that this would lead Zara (in his paranoia) to remove Meyers from Morris' campaign, thus weakening Morris. Meanwhile, Molly learns that Meyers has been fired and, fearing that her secret will now be exposed once he leaves, commits apparent suicide by overdosing on pills. Meyers feels guilty about this, as he did intend to expose Morris' affair with Molly in exchange for a job on Senator Pullman's campaign.
Meyers later confronts Morris and tells him that he will expose the affair with Molly if Morris does not replace Zara with himself, as well as offer Senator Thompson the Vice Presidency guaranteeing Thompson's support. Morris relents when Meyers claims he has a suicide note which he says he stole from Molly's room. Later at Molly's funeral, Zara compliments Meyers on using his own secrets to his advantage. Having accepted Thompson's endorsement and his delegates, Morris becomes the nominee despite losing the Ohio primary to Pullman.
Now Senior Campaign Manager, Meyers attends a press conference organized by Ida. The movie ends as he takes his seat for a television interview and is asked for insight as to how the events surrounding the election unfolded.
Review - The games people play to get ahead, not necessarily in politics, but within themselves.
Audiences leaving George Clooney's latest Ides Of March will feel like they've just finished a watching a really good play.
What makes sense of this is the fact Ides Of March was adapted from a play. In a play telling an audience everything they need to know always helps, especially when the majority of it are only going to see it once. However the difference in film is the aesthetic liberties it allows its' director and I don't think in this Clooney took enough advantage of that.
There is a part to this movie where a business exchange takes place inside of an escalade parked outside of a barbershop. The words being exchanged within that escalade are left to the audience's imagination because the camera never goes inside, but stands staring at it from across the street. Ides of March could've used a lot more scenes like this, but Clooney played it safe with a conventionally linear story line. And I think Clooney put so much more into the story line than he needed to for the audience's sake.
This film didn't leave enough to the imagination of its' audience. While the actors carried out every single demand of this script, the film itself doesn't leave its' audience with enough to make them want to watch it again. The amount of telling done over this show leaves little to no replay value. It feels like the majority of the aesthetic was put into the script when I think a minimum would've been more than enough. Ides of March's script told me a lot more than I needed to know. It feels like the script told me so much that I forgot some key elements to the story. Then again the liberties he took with the script is exactly what allowed Ryan Gosling to take his character to some extremes.
In terms of acting, with names like Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Paul Giamatti, Clooney delivers an all-star studded Sega Dream-Cast. And in terms of his direction, Clooney really leaves Ides Of March to his roots in the stage. However with that said I'm afraid it all felt a little too staged for the silver screen.
For the sake of cinema I think Clooney could've taken a little more of an aesthetic liberty with this project.
What makes sense of this is the fact Ides Of March was adapted from a play. In a play telling an audience everything they need to know always helps, especially when the majority of it are only going to see it once. However the difference in film is the aesthetic liberties it allows its' director and I don't think in this Clooney took enough advantage of that.
There is a part to this movie where a business exchange takes place inside of an escalade parked outside of a barbershop. The words being exchanged within that escalade are left to the audience's imagination because the camera never goes inside, but stands staring at it from across the street. Ides of March could've used a lot more scenes like this, but Clooney played it safe with a conventionally linear story line. And I think Clooney put so much more into the story line than he needed to for the audience's sake.
This film didn't leave enough to the imagination of its' audience. While the actors carried out every single demand of this script, the film itself doesn't leave its' audience with enough to make them want to watch it again. The amount of telling done over this show leaves little to no replay value. It feels like the majority of the aesthetic was put into the script when I think a minimum would've been more than enough. Ides of March's script told me a lot more than I needed to know. It feels like the script told me so much that I forgot some key elements to the story. Then again the liberties he took with the script is exactly what allowed Ryan Gosling to take his character to some extremes.
In terms of acting, with names like Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Paul Giamatti, Clooney delivers an all-star studded Sega Dream-Cast. And in terms of his direction, Clooney really leaves Ides Of March to his roots in the stage. However with that said I'm afraid it all felt a little too staged for the silver screen.
For the sake of cinema I think Clooney could've taken a little more of an aesthetic liberty with this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment