Review: Ides of March

The film’s second half is easy to swallow, but hard to digest—there are too many downfalls, too many crisscrossing betrayals. It’s fun to watch Gosling connect the dots, but it’s not clear that they make a coherent picture.

(For a fun game, try keeping tally of the backstabbings. I counted 8 knives sticking out of 5 backs, but I’m sure I missed some. Tracking the betrayals would make a good drinking game, if you’ve got a handle of rum, a lax usher at your theater, and a liver that can take a beating.)

Ides of March feels vaguely like a call to action, but hell if I know what action it’s calling for. Should we support the American dreamers like Morris, or reject them because in the end, they’re no different than the mudslinging mediocrities we’ve got now? Should we hold our leaders to stricter scrutiny, or stop scrutinizing their personal shortcomings (read: Monica Lewinsky scandals) at all? Should we resent Obama for not leading us to the Promised Land, or for tricking us into believing the Promised Land even exists? Ides of March ends in such a flurry that each of these interpretations finds support – but since the ideas contradict one another, it amounts to a wash.

Down to the final shot, the film seems to think it’s painted a clear and damning portrait of the American politician. Damning, maybe; but clear, not so much. Ides of March is too muddled to work as an allegory, and too allegorical to fully succeed as a story. ~Ben Orlin