THE IDES OF MARCH (George Clooney). 98 minutes. Opens Friday (October 7). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN
Without anyone noticing, George Clooney has become one of the best directors of actors. He gets them to relax and in so doing brings out their strongest performances.
Seriously. Think of David Strathairn’s spellbinding righteousness in Good Night, And Good Luck contrasted with Ray Wise’s glad-handing desperation. Or Sam Rockwell’s weaselly confidence in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. And then there’s just about everyone in The Ides Of March – including Clooney himself.
The Ides Of March is a nimble adaptation of Beau Willimon’s stage play Farragut North, about the ideological deflowering of a campaign strategist (Ryan Gosling) ushering a hopey-changey Democratic governor (Clooney) through the Ohio presidential primary.
Don’t go expecting revelatory commentary on the way we vote Willimon’s plot is a Mamety mixture of betrayal, disillusionment and high-stakes brinksmanship that never quite shakes off its stage origins.
But it’s performed by a cast at peak power. Clooney, Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and Philip Seymour Hoffman are so good, and so good together, that I didn’t even mind being a step ahead of their characters for the entire running time.
It’s a pleasure to watch them go through their paces.
