Beware the Ides of March.

American politics is corrupt, conniving, power-craving, misogynistic and undemocratic world. But one thing you certainly can’t call it is boring.

Hence why most of the political stories across the ages have been set in the land of the free, whether they be fact or fiction. The latest offering to the fictional pile is The Ides of March, a film that stars its own writer and director, George Clooney. 

I don’t really know why the film has such an important meaning for the 15th March but it does, maybe that’s election day or something. My best guess is that it’s making reference to the fall of Julies Caesar, but who knows maybe the DVD release date will be on 15th March.

As political dramas go, The Ides of March is a decent enough addition. I do enjoy political movies, especially ones that depict an actual event of some kind; movies like Fair Game, the story of Valerie Plame who the Bush administration illegally revealed as a CIA officer. The Ides of March however is fictional and centres around the most fun time of election season.

Ryan Gosling, the film’s main star, plays Stephen Meyers, an aid to presidential candidate, Governor Mike Morris, played by Clooney.

The story looks at how no matter how valiant your goals are or how much you believe someone can make a change, it’ll never work out for the good of the people and you’ll end up just as corrupt as your predecessor. In order to do what you do best, at least in politics, you’re going to have to sell your soul to the devil.

The performances from Gosling and Clooney are very good throughout, as is the one from Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays the Governor’s other strategic aide, Paul.

My favourite scene in the movie (slight spoiler alert) is when Stephen sees Paul outside his car after stabbing him in the back, and they have a very mundane and normal conversation like nothing’s happened, Paul just walks off with a cigarette declaring he’ll go find some consultancy firm to work for. Backstabbing really is just part of the everyday life in politics.

Towards the end Gosling’s performance gets chillingly good as Stephen becomes more and more conniving and starts getting the knives out and blackmailing left, right, and centre.

This made me think, perhaps this is a prequel to Gosling’s other 2011 movie: Drive. When the movie ends Stephen is practically the same character as the nameless lead in Drive! Well I suppose we know what he went on to do after helping Clooney into the White House. He went on a murderous rampage, got a job with the dentist from Seinfeld and took down a drug-lord just for the fun of it.

Anyway, The Ides of March is a good movie, but unlike Drive it never really does anything that will truly grip you or leave you hanging off the edge of your seat. It’s enjoyable enough but I just expected a little bit more from it.

That being said, I do actually believe that Clooney has a lot of potential as a director. He now has two decent films under his belt: The Ides of March and Goodnight and Goodluck. I’m looking forward to seeing more from him.

Final Verdict: 3 Stars. Not exactly Shakespeare but a good political drama all the same.