Eye Candy #581 - "The Ides of March"

The Ides of March:  George Clooney directs and stars with Ryan Gosling in this film based on the play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon, which is itself based on the 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean (we‘ll go with “very loosely“ on that one).  Gosling is Stephen Meyers, a junior campaign manager for Governor Mike Morris’ (Clooney) presidential campaign currently running in Ohio.   While he is politically savvy, Meyers is also more than a little naïve and idealistic.  He starts a relationship with an intern (played by Evan Rachel Wood) who happens to be the daughter of the DNC chairman and also has had sexual encounters with the Governor.  Soon Meyers finds himself out of his depth, out of his job, and exposed to the true nature of the political animals he‘s surrounded himself with, going from golden boy to toxic in the blink of an eye, all while doing what he thinks is the right thing to do to protect the Governor.  Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman co-star.  I’m a fan of most of Clooney’s directorial efforts (I think “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind“ and “Good Night and Good Luck“ are great), but this one left me cold.  The film is populated by unlikable, amoral sharks, none of whom you can empathize with.  It feels distinctly detached from reality. It’s  also advertised as a political thriller, but sorely lacks any thrills.  Technically sound, and it’s nice to see Clooney in a non-good guy role, but this is still a lesser effort.  Woodchuck sez, “Meh.”