The Ides of March

Overview

Young campaign manager Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) believes "nothing bad happens when you're doing the right thing." The thing is, bad things can happen in a world where the public lets petty scandals eclipse what's right. The thing is, you can do bad on the path to what you believe is good.

The Ides of March follows the up-and-coming politico in the lead-up to the Ohio Democratic presidential primary. A win there puts his candidate, Mike Morris (George Clooney), right at the door of the Oval Office, because, as we've learnt from watching The West Wing, "as Ohio goes, so goes the nation."

To secure victory, Stephen and his mentor, Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), are negotiating for the support of Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright). But the middling politician may ask Morris to compromise more than he is willing to, as Stephen finds out when he meets in secret with rival campaign boss Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti). Meanwhile, making her way from the periphery and into Stephen's focus is Molly (Evan Rachel Wood), an intern even younger and more fresh-faced than he is.

Over a few crucial days, this ambitious idealist will become a pragmatic manipulator, and it's an entirely believable journey. The dramas that develop are not huge, but they have huge consequences, and the cold political machinations are startlingly interrupted by reminders of what's softly, vulnerably human.

George Clooney is a hit-it-out-of-the-park director. This is now his fourth feature (after Leatherheads, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), and it's so sophisticated and subtle as to show off his real, decades-strong mastery of both the medium of film and the back rooms of power.

And Ryan Gosling? Ryan Gosling is George Clooney 15 years ago. Intensity comes to Stephen slowly, like clouds rolling in, and few actors of his generations could portray such a journey as effectively.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=McCt-_yYLpo