The Ides of March
Director: George Clooney
Year Released: 2011
Rating: 2.0
A dedicated worker on a Democratic Campaign (Ryan Gosling) - who, at the start of the movie, already seems to know about shady insider deals and corruption - discovers his candidate (George Clooney) had an affair with (and impregnated) an intern (Evan Rachel Wood) and he takes it upon himself to cover it up. Contrivances galore add up in this one (the third act is a wreck) and the script could have used a bit of tune-up ("We're Catholic" means "I can't have an abortion" it seems) - the individual this focuses on is Gosling's character and the intention is to show him becoming more jaded and upset about the 'evil' going on (the last shot with his quivering faces is supposed to hit you hard), but I was never under the impression he changed that substantially throughout the duration. The cast is simply loaded, although Philip Seymour Hoffman could have done his been-there, know-that Machiavelli figure in his sleep. While smoking. And drooling.
