The Ides of March

This is a film that wants you to understand that it is important. Every scene is crafted to show the weight of what the characters are going through, every speech meant to either make an impassioned plea or show you how screwed up and full of compromise the political system really is (what a new and radical sentiment). Its kind of like the West Wing only without the sense of humor or likable characters.

Now given the film's cast (George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and Geoffrey Wright) this is all executed competently and in a reasonably engaging matter. However I couldn't help but feel the entire thing was all surface, and not doing anything new. Its almost as if Clooney got so tied up in trying to make something momentous he ended up drowning in it. Its not worthless by any stretch of the imagination, just no where near as insightful or important as it thinks it is.

Postscript: I now remember why the film felt so familiar. Its really just a remake of Primary Colors, except not as good. Its lacking that films sense of humor, and identifiable characters, so its unsurprising this film ended up just leaving me blase.