The Ides of March

Hav­ing made just four films since being Oscar-nom­i­nat­ed for his tremen­dous per­for­mance as a junkie school teacher in 2006 dra­ma Half Nel­son, Ryan Gosling is now hit­ting the big-screen three times inside two months. But where you get the feel­ing that the vis­cer­al cool of Dri­ve and the play­boy jok­i­ness of Crazy, Stu­pid, Love aren’t big stretch­es for the 30-year-old heart­throb, The Ides of March is the real deal.

Chew­ing over ever-apt Amer­i­can themes of bust­ed ide­al­ism, cor­rup­tion, trust, betray­al and pow­er, writer/​director George Clooney’s superb polit­i­cal ensem­ble dra­ma takes its name from the day that Julius Cae­sar was stabbed to death by those clos­est to him. Co-writ­ten with reg­u­lar screen­writer Grant Heslov, it’s a big-screen adap­ta­tion of Beau Willimon’s play ​‘Far­ragut North’, based on Willimon’s time as an aide dur­ing the failed 2004 pres­i­den­tial bid of US politi­cian Howard Dean.

Back in the director’s chair for the fourth time, it’s Clooney him­self who steps up as oh-so-groomed pres­i­den­tial wannabe Mike Mor­ris. But Gosling’s Stephen Myers is the man behind the man: the cam­paign whiz kid whose super-smart spin and speech-writ­ing will get Mor­ris to the White House. ​“Noth­ing bad hap­pens when you’re doing the right thing,” says Myers – fate­ful­ly, as it turns out.

This is Clooney return­ing to Good Night, and Good Luck’s high-risk atmos­phere and absorb­ing imme­di­a­cy – the kind of cin­e­ma where men talk­ing in rooms becomes grip­ping dra­ma. Inject­ing a stagy set­up with agili­ty and urgency, the vibe feels less like the Gatling gun wit of The West Wing and more like The Wire’s poi­so­nous polit­i­cal subplot.

And so it goes. Myers finds his charis­ma fiz­zling out, his naivety exposed and his ide­al­ism splin­tered as Mor­ris’ cam­paign evolves into a trench-war of wits played by old­er, wis­er, tougher men. In a series of pres­sure-cook­er con­fronta­tions you can’t take your eyes off, Gosling goes head-to-head against the big boys. As the senior wing­man on Mor­ris’ team, Philip Sey­mour Hoff­man brings anoth­er fright­en­ing­ly pow­er­ful per­for­mance. Up against them, Paul Giamatti’s rival cam­paign man­ag­er cranks down his inten­si­ty for a cun­ning, com­pul­sive turn that com­ple­ments Hoffman’s perfectly.

Giv­en an intel­li­gent script and space to flex it, Clooney’s cast keeps the dra­ma pow­er­ing for­ward through deep­er, dark­er shades. As a frisky intern at the heart of the dra­ma, Evan Rachel Wood reminds us why she’s one of Hollywood’s most inter­est­ing if under­used young actress­es. While Marisa Tomei’s spiky turn as a jour­nal­ist makes a refresh­ing change from see­ing her set up and laid flat for a fun­ny-faced male co-star (see: The Wrestler, Cyrus, Crazy, Stu­pid, Love.).

And Gosling? It’s his best – and most inter­est­ing – per­for­mance since Half Nel­son. As ideals and integri­ty slow­ly slip from his grasp, he con­vinc­ing­ly dis­man­tles Myers from cock­sure swag­ger to dis­il­lu­sion­ment to hard­ened accep­tance. The Ides of March com­pletes a whirl­wind jour­ney from periph­ery play­er to star to seri­ous actor. This is his year.