"Ides of March" is the story of a political campaign from the perspective of a campaign aide of the name Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling). It is meant to portray the nature of a political campaign and how the entire process is a grueling ordeal. In addition, it is meant to expose some of the under-the-table dealing and corruption involved in the election process.
Stephen Meyers is an idealistic campaign aide, who from the beginning of the campaign, believes strongly that his candidate, Mike Morris (George Clooney), absolutely must win in order for the United States to succeed, as a country. The story depicts how Meyers is broken down by the political process and is turned into a part in the corrupt machine that he is trying to work against.
One of the biggest strong points of this movie is the acting. Ryan Gosling brilliantly plays a young man who is driven by idealistic views of how a country should be and how a government should serve its people. He manages to play an intelligent character who is simply too naive to understand how things really work in national politics. In addition, Phillip Seymour Hoffman does a very precise job playing the campaign manager Paul Zara, depicting him as a a man who has been hardened by many years of weathering a corrupt political system, and has been turned from an idealist to a pragmatic realist.
The weakness in this film is that it fails to convey anything that is already known to people who follow politics. It does not give a fresh perspective that a politically aware moviegoer would be hoping for. It simply gives specific examples of the interaction between two political campaigns as well as the campaigns and the news media.
In the end this is a well written movie with well acted characters, but it simply falls short of reaching its intended goal. This is not a bad watch and would be worth seeing once. Ryan Gosling's performance in this movie is definitely worth consideration for "Best Actor" at the Oscars, but this film will probably not have much of a chance at "Best Picture".
Stephen Meyers is an idealistic campaign aide, who from the beginning of the campaign, believes strongly that his candidate, Mike Morris (George Clooney), absolutely must win in order for the United States to succeed, as a country. The story depicts how Meyers is broken down by the political process and is turned into a part in the corrupt machine that he is trying to work against.
One of the biggest strong points of this movie is the acting. Ryan Gosling brilliantly plays a young man who is driven by idealistic views of how a country should be and how a government should serve its people. He manages to play an intelligent character who is simply too naive to understand how things really work in national politics. In addition, Phillip Seymour Hoffman does a very precise job playing the campaign manager Paul Zara, depicting him as a a man who has been hardened by many years of weathering a corrupt political system, and has been turned from an idealist to a pragmatic realist.
The weakness in this film is that it fails to convey anything that is already known to people who follow politics. It does not give a fresh perspective that a politically aware moviegoer would be hoping for. It simply gives specific examples of the interaction between two political campaigns as well as the campaigns and the news media.
In the end this is a well written movie with well acted characters, but it simply falls short of reaching its intended goal. This is not a bad watch and would be worth seeing once. Ryan Gosling's performance in this movie is definitely worth consideration for "Best Actor" at the Oscars, but this film will probably not have much of a chance at "Best Picture".