THE IDES OF MARCH (M)
Sony Home Entertainment
THE Ides of March is a clever title for a film about career assassinations in politics but unless you’re in the know about the workings of the American primary voting system, you may find the plot confusing. George Clooney’s fourth feature as a director falls flat.
The film opens during a crucial Ohio primary election, with suave Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) expected to clinch the Democratic nomination. Reasonably confident of Morris’s victory are his battle-hardened campaign manager, Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and press secretary Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a smooth operator on the fast track to the White House press corps.
But cracks start to appear when rivals attempt to poach staff and Governor Mike reveals he isn’t as nice as he’s made out to be. A love triangle between Meyers, intern Molly (Evan Rachel Wood) and Clooney adds to the film’s sense of confusion.
Gosling’s character arc is perhaps the best thing in the film, but as a whole the stellar cast is under-used and the dialogue contains too many in-jokes leaving the core audience for this film viewers of Fox News.
