The Ides of March (2011) - Clooney's political thriller looks at the cynical downside of modern politics

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Political Movie of the Year
+ Sexiest Screen Couple of the Year (Ryan Gosling & Evan Rachel Wood)

The well-crafted poster for George Clooney's The Ides of March

Around the primary election to find the Democratic presidential nominee in Ohio, an idealistic campaign manager for the governor struggles, as unforeseen problems present themselves.

George Clooney's (Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)) perhaps best film as a director yet is this luxuriously casted political thriller adaptation of Beau Willimon's (House of Cards (2013-15)) 2008 play Farragut North by Willimon, Clooney and his writing partner Grant Heslov (The Monuments Men (2014)).
Clooney himself, portraying the governor, Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master (2012)), Ryan Gosling (The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)), Paul Giamatti (Sideways (2004)), Evan Rachel Wood (The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (2013)) and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler (2008)) all give fine performances.
Ides of March is handsomely photographed by Phedon Papamichael (The Descendants (2011)); and the plot is exciting and well-structured, but probably most so for the already politically interested. There is a potential lull in its middle section, as the suspense of the film seems to hang on two meetings that look pretty harmless to the outsider until a bit longer into the film. SPOILER The Gosling-Wood plot string reveals itself as a pure Monica Lewinsky-type issue, and what it lacks in raciness and contemporary freshness, it gains back in the very sexy performances and chemistry of the two stars. SPOILER The only really obvious plot problem comes, as she, the resourceful daughter of a wealthy father, and Gosling's campaign manager seem to have trouble raising measly 900-1800 $ for a procedure...
The title refers to something a soothsayer said to warn Julius Caesar before he was stabbed to death in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. 
The Ides of March is a fine film about the icy-cold world of top politics.

Related posts:
 
George Clooney:  The Monuments Men (2014) or, George Clooney's The Lecture (co-writer/director/actor) 
Gravity (2013) or, Survival in Space: The Ride (actor)
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 
The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family (actor) 
Burn After Reading (2008) or, Idiocy 2008 (actor) 
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) or, The Gong Show Killer (director-actor) 
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark (actor)

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 12.5 mil. $
Box office: 76 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Ides of March was made very smartly, in that Clooney and the financiers managed to hold the costs very low considering the talent involved. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and got 4 Globe nominations and generally good reviews. After a 10.4 mil. $ opening weekend in the US, it went on to gross 40.9 mil. $ (54 % of the total gross) there.]

What do you think of The Ides of March?