The Ides Of March (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review

So listen, here's the set-up for the film, as Lee mentions in his excellent review: "An idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail." So let's think about this. We're talking about a main character who is a 30 year old political strategist for one of the two top Democratic candidates for President of the United States. Political advisers at this level are not steeped in naivete, people. Quite the contrary. They are some of the most seasoned, intelligent, and AWARE people in their field. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character actually gives an account of a situation early on in his political career that would have been a FAR better platform for a film about someone's idealism. He talks about a situation with an unknown politician and how what transpired early on in his career led to where he was at today. So that's my first main problem with the film considering it's Gosling's idealism that is the focus....it's just the wrong situation and setting.

Second, in order for one's idealism to be affected, there has to be an innate motivation or drive toward some sort of goal or desired outcome, and in this case it's entirely absent. There is not some ultimate goal that Gosling is scheming for, only to realize that he must abandon his ideals in order to achieve it, thus pulling a darth vader and turning to the machiavellian "dark side". In fact, the character is entirely absent of motivation for any greater attainment. He is simply caught up in events that he really had nothing to do with and the guy was put in the position of having to use the only leverage he had in order to keep a job, lol. The whole scene at the end where his expression in the chair is supposed to be symbolic of his turn from a content idealist to some hardened, emotionless "ends justify the means" person is just ridiculous! I mean, wow, what a shock it must have been for him to be hit with the hard reality that people in politics aren't all truthful, loyal, trustworthy, or ethical! I know that for me it was a real surprise to learn that politicians have affairs, or lie, or cover things up, or put a spin on a story before they hit the papers.....I mean seriously, come on. This film requires greater suspension of disbelief than a superhero flick, or one where someone that looks like Jack Black ends up getting the hot girl to fall for him in the end!

Politicians who reach this level of status in their field don't have halos hovering above their heads...they lie, cheat and steal in order to get ahead, and that shouldn't be a secret to anyone. The whole scenario here is just completely unrealistic, and when I realized that this film was about to end when it did, I was completely bummed. What I thought was just the set up for something more realistic and dramatic ended up being the actual story arc, and I'm sorry but it just didn't sell me on the idea in the slightest.

I think I was ready to really dig my teeth into a gritty, dark political drama, but that's not what I felt I got. Based on my feelings about the film and what you wrote in response, maybe what they should have done was flesh-out the idealistic bond that Morris and Gosling's character shared, which can be done even without them having to interact on the screen. This was a relatively short running time, and I think developing the relationships a bit more may have made a difference, at least for me. I felt that I had a better far better feel for Giamatt's character than just about anyone else, and he had the least amt of screen time among the main characters.