Ides of March--Idle Mulch by Michael Fantauzzo

There’s two things you must know about me: I’m a political junkie, and I’m a contrarian. So when Liz Arekelian suggested we see the new political thriller “The Ides of March” starring Ryan Gosling and George Clooney and directed by Clooney, I was actually rather apprehensive.
Still, because I love Liz (and kind of owed her after I botched our screening of Madonna’s film W.E.) I went along with her. So my cynically shaded view of the film is that it is a high-gloss, well crafted work of breathless naivete.

The film centers around Stephen Meyers, the hot young 30 year old communications director for Governor Mike Morris of Pennsylvania. Meyers is an idealist--as such I found the premise of his character suspect at the start. Nobody rises to the rank of number 2 man in an ascendant political campaign with that sort of idealism. The conceit of the film of course is his predictable loss of idealism, but this comes from a series of shocks that aren’t quite so electrifying. He (GASP) meets with the opposing campaign director who (GASP) tells hims his polls are off and his candidate is in fact going to win because (GASP) Ohio has an open primary and Republican voters are going to throw the election for the more beatable candidate. Which is to say, anyone who has more than just a passing experience about politics (like say, I don’t know, political communications wunderkind Stephen Meyers) wouldn’t find any of this a shocking revelation.

This is the problem I have with political films. Like a historian who wants to shoot out her TV a la Elvis Presley after watching a History Channel marathon on Nostradamus and Atlantis, I wanted to yell out “not a scandal!” or “you should know that!” or “saying that would kill your campaign!” too many times. And too often the characters occupy a West Wing-style liberal fantasy land where conservative Republicans don’t really exist---and as much as i wish that were the case, it comes off as preening Hollywood vanity. You can practically hear the filmmakers patting themselves on the back as Clooney’s character lectures a young audience member about his support for gay marriage; “that’ll show those rubes in Middle America!” The frequent soliloquizing  brought to mind the now-famous South Park criticism of George Clooney’s smug Oscar acceptance speech.



Now I happen to be a gay liberal democrat atheist. But I’m also a realist and in the best sense of the word, a cynic. Ides of March presents a fantasy world of good intentions and idealism that doesn't exist, and then bursts with self-satisfaction when it tears it down with predictable scandal. At the risk of spoiling the films major sub-plot, let’s just say that Clooney’s character is modeled not just on Barack Obama, but John Edwards as well. The real scandal of the film comes from the candidates actions in this regard, and that part was well-crafted. Gosling, between this film and his work in Drive, as well as his previous nominations for Half Nelson and Blue Valentine, will get an Oscar sooner or later. And the film itself really is good to look at, the cinematography providing several great brooding moment with the camera held uncomfortably long.

But the film is too clever by half when it tries to extrapolate larger points about idealism and realpolitik. Hollywood doesn’t need to condescend to teach its audiences such things---we watch the news, and we’re justifiably already quite jaded. Which is sad but, more importantly,  true. Performances should reveal greater truths, not tell us the same old story.