George Clooney’s The Ides of March is an actors’ movie, a picture that gives performers some provocative things to do without necessarily providing a great story for them to hang onto. It’s also a movie made for grown-ups, and Lord knows there are few enough of those around today. But this story of an idealistic young press secretary who finds his principles eroded at the hands of a corrupt Democratic presidential candidate keeps getting in the way of its own chin-stroking: It’s carefully designed to make us think it’s making us think, but in the end, what’s it really telling us? That politics — and politicians — can be dishonest and ugly? Please don’t stop the presses for that one.
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REVIEW: Gosling and Clooney Bring Movie-Star Chops, and Movie-Star Stubble, to The Ides of March
