Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench
Screenwriter – Dustin Lance Black
Director – Clint Eastwood
Certificate– 15
Running Time– 136 mins
Blood Work and Hereafter aside, Clint Eastwood has been one of the most consistent American directors of the 21st Century. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of his generations most talented and respected actors, with three Oscar nominations to his name. So with this, their first collaboration, tackling a key story of 20th Century America, a subject both have previously excelled in, expectations were rightly high. So have they met or even exceeded these expectations with their biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the F.B.I., who held the position from the creation of the Bureau in 1935 until his death in 1972? Sadly the answer is no.
The majority of Hoover’s career is on public record (except his secret files he kept, which included dossiers on every president he served under), and it is this that Black’s script gets a large amount of its material from. Mainly focusing on the early stages of work life, and the latter of years of his career, with little seen of the middle decades, we see Hoover tacking the Bolshevik bombings after WW1, taking on the famous gangsters of the 30’s, through to dealings with the Kennedy’s. His private life however, is subject to much debate and heresy, so Eastwood uses flashbacks as a way to tell Hoover’s story, and instantly sets him up as an unreliable narrator. Eastwood depicts Hoover as a power hungry and paranoid individual, concerned with this own legacy. As he dictates his life story to younger agents, you have to wonder how much is actually the truth, false memoires of an old man, or somewhere in between. Or is Hoover just applying the old Western adage, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”? Which is actually quite apt, as Hoover became the biggest and most powerful sheriff in town.
DiCaprio is fine, if not exceptional as Hoover, particularly excelling in scenes with the three key individuals in his life; his domineering mother (Judi Dench), his secretary Helen (Naomi Watts) and his best friend, closest confidant and rumoured lover Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). It is investigating these relationships, rather than federal crimes, than J. Edgar succeeds most. Hoover telling his mother he doesn’t desire women, failing to steal a kiss from Helen and a physical scene with Clyde are much more compelling scenes than those in which Hoover is imposing the law. The support acts are all solid if not spectacular, although Watts admittedly has little to do. Dench makes more of an impact, and is quite chilling in her controlled coldness to her son. Little scenes such as a conversation with Robert Kennedy and Nixon’s reaction to Hoover’s death are other small highlights.
Much has been said of the make-up used to age the characters in the film, and the truth is that it is distracting, for some reason seemingly more so on Hammer. That was not the most distracting aspect of the picture though; the constantly poorly lit shots are as annoying as they are surprising when you consider how experienced the director is. Clearly purposely done as a way of conveying the mood of the characters and tone of the film, but there are other ways than to do this than to light it like a low budget horror movie. The script also isn’t the strongest that the director or his star will have worked with. Without wanting to lean too much one way of chastising or praising Hoover, the film at times feels flat and safe, and even at times a bit boring, lacking the bite that may have come from a braver writer (an angry Oliver Stone perhaps), and fails to dig deep into the paranoid mind of this complex individual. And when you consider the talent involved, flat, safe, and a bit boring all add up to what is an early contender for the biggest let down of 2012.
2/5
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