Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) is on the verge of winning the Democratic nomination for President, a coup for Steven (Ryan Gosling), a 30-year-old campaign manager. When the race is unexpectedly competitive, he faces the corruption of his ideals and his self.
I wanted to see this film because I’m studying American politics. I also wanted to see it because it was playing in Washington DC, the capitol of the USA, where the street Farragut North is. That’s the title of the play this is based on, and originally was the title of the film as well until it was changed to be a Julius Ceaser reference that slightly more people outside of politics would get. I also wanted to see it because it had George Clooney (who also directed), Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Paul Giamatti in it. There were some women in it as well but politics is still unfortunately a man’s game. The film ended up having little to do with politics beyond a general criticism that the system preys on weak people and corrupts them (or people involved choose to do this, although they’d never admit their own guilt), and isn’t as partisan as you might believe with Clooney at the helm (his first directorial effort, Good Night, and Good Luck was about the evils of McCarthy’s Communist witch-hunt). Interestingly enough, the photo the Barack Obama ‘Hope’ poster was based on was taken while Clooney was speaking about the War in Darfur.
The writing and acting is superb, as you’d expect from this calibre. While directors who act in their films can often get distracted, Clooney doesn’t neglect the visual side of the film (which may have been easy, given that he is for the most part playing his own persona). There are a few incredibly crude visual metaphors (standing in front of a giant American flag, anyone?) but for the most part the direction is solid. Where the success or failure of this film rests though, being an adaptation of a play and so fairly limited in terms of action and locations, is on the performances. Ryan Gosling has the meatiest part and is excellent, and I can’t wait to see his other big role of this year, Drive. He has arrived. The other characters don’t change as much as they adapt to the situation in order to survive like the slippery political snakes they are. All in all it gives a grim portrait of the state of the political system and the way situations can be framed or spinned for the media (obviously there is a fair bit of artistic license).
While the film is not as political as some might have hoped, and the Shepherd Fairey-referencing posters might confuse, this is still a gripping, dramatic, and poignant thriller about the moral destruction of an idealistic young man by the political machine. The trailer is wonderfully ambiguous about what actually incites this destruction, and I’d recommend avoiding reading any detailed plot summaries or spoiler-filled reviews before seeing it.
Verdict: Strong recommend.
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