The Ides of March

Most of the time that I go to the movies, I go to see things that I want to see. And I'm not too hard to please, so I usually write happy reflections on the movies. I went to see this movie, though, for other reasons, so I will now proceed to ridicule it:

When the movie ended, I was floored--what we had seen thus far did not have anywhere near enough plot in it to end. Nothing had really happened. I mean, as all the descriptions of the film on the internet had noted, a naive and idealistic political campaigner (Ryan Gosling) had a brush with harsh reality and had become hardened in the process. But that's it! Okay, okay, so I exaggerate--an intern also has sex with a politician (it's quite possibly rape since she's drunk) and then gets an abortion after she discovers and shares with Ryan Gosling (who she's now sleeping with) that she's pregnant--none of this is well-developed, though, so it barely counts as things happening.

Basically, there's only one character who is dynamic in the whole show. It's this Ryan Gosling character. His eyes are close together and crooked, and he doesn't play the part well, in my humble opinion. He broods and mopes. He gets sad and hurt. But he does not express those things in a persuasive manner.

None of the other characters are well developed--the candidate is like any candidate--all about his television appearance and very little character. His wife (Jennifer Ehle!) has about two lines, and basically just sits there looking like Meryl Streep. The head of the campaign is persuasively slovenly and gives a not-very-convincing speech about loyalty (it's hard to believe anyone in politics is loyal). The intern looks slightly sad after her abortion, but her acting is never very believable.


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