Starring: Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Wood, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Director: George Clooney
Category: IIB
The Hong Kong release of The Ides of March couldn't be more timely. With 2012 shaping up as polling year around the world, George Clooney's fourth directorial effort offers an opportune reflection about the moral dilemmas usually obscured by the razzmatazz of modern-day electioneering.
However, this isn't a groundbreaking film. Instead, it can be seen as Clooney's 21st century interpretation of a well-trodden narrative with elements already touched on by past entries such as The Candidate or Primary Colours.
But the film is effective in looking at the corrupting power of power itself, and how idealism can sometimes be just the preamble to a murderous zeal for, well, nothing much but a personal riposte to maimed pride.
The film's title stems from the ancient Roman moniker for the 15th day of March, the day on which Julius Caesar was killed in a coup d'etat led by his one-time confidante Marcus Junius Brutus. And The Ides of March - itself an adaptation of the play Farragut North - is more about a Brutus than a Caesar.
Central to the film, therefore, is Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling, above), a charismatic young spin doctor working on the presidential campaign of Mike Morris (played by Clooney).