A Slow March
Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is young but he is also sharp and is very good at what he does which is work as second in command for Governor Mike Morris's (George Clooney) presidential campaign. Right in the middle of the campaign to secure Ohio Morris receives a call and a proposition from Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) the campaign manager for Mike's opposition. Having turned him down things start to go awry as attempts to gain endorsements don't go to plan and the idealistic Stephen finds himself falling for Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood). All of which leads to Stephen having to consider what is important.
I reckon if "The Ides of March" had been set in the world of British politics it may have grabbed my attention and kept it. You see I am a Brit who has little knowledge of how politics and campaigning works in America and to be honest have no interest in getting to know but it does mean that some of "The Ides of March" goes over my head. That is why I frequently found it hard to get involved in the unfolding drama.
Although having said all that whilst my attention was not kept I was able to get the gist of what was going on as we are taken behind the scenes of a political campaign where we become aware of the manipulations, treachery and skulduggery which goes on with those who are yet to become tainted getting sucked in to the system where their morals are put to the test. As I said if this had been based around the British political system which I have more knowledge of it would probably have grabbed me a little more.
The knock on effect of this is we end up with one seriously impressive cast with the majority of which capable of handling the dialogue and characters. Even if you don't get sucked in to the unfolding drama watching Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ryan Gosling inhabit their characters and their scenes is a pure joy to watch. In fact for those wanting to become actors I suggest they watch "The Ides of March" and study how the actors play their characters in a way which feels natural and that goes right down to Marisa Tomei who I swear gets better with age, not just in her looks with her being seriously cute here but also in her performance.
What this all boils down to is that "The Ides of March" as a whole didn't do it for me and found the storyline laborious but the performances were fantastic and it is the sort of movie that you could be encouraged to watch again even if it did little for you because of the acting.
