The Ides... meh?

What a disappointment. I cannot watch another dark (literally could not see a thing!) George Clooney flick. This film is a Star Vehicle--moved only because of the names associated with the films. Guiltily, I bought into that. How can a film with George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, and Marisa Tomei possibly be bad? Well, this film was adapted from a play and the writers did not develop the screenplay to include the ticks and nuances that film picks up. Gosling is supposed to play a character that is wide-eyed about politics and believes in good. Why not muss him up a little bit? Make his hair not perfectly coiffed, his posture not so confident, fingers not perfectly groomed. I wish he delved further into his character and got into the psyche of the man he's suposed to portray especially because Director Clooney is obsessed with the extreme close up.

Also, this film is very oddly lit. The film should have opened with bright lights, glowy and soft focus to make politics appear more romantic and reflect the wide-eyed emotion that Gosling has towards politics. However, the film starts off dark and half-lit and remains dark and poorly lit throughout the entire movie. There are some parts of the film that are so dark that I couldn't see the action, I couldn't see the tension, anxiety, anguish, torment, conflict...ANYTHING! Why didn't we see Gosling throwing down in a blaze of glory?! There was too much going on in the film and director Clooney needed to pull back and learn the art of subtlety. The only good thing about this film is the style and fashions. The men and (Evan Rachel Wood) are impeccably dressed and coiffed throughout.

This scene with Gosling on the phone was supposed to be an extremely tense and conflict-building-sequence... but all I thought was, "Hot damn, those gloves are nice!" Not exactly what you want to be thinking about the humble, good-natured politician. 

Filmmakers and actors everywhere.. please trust your audience. We're not stupid. You do not need to club us over the head with your message with fancy lighting tricks and excessively loud sound design. One of my instructors told me that good film editing is like a ninja. You should never notice it's presence. Well filmmakers, good filmmakers are like ninjas. We should never notice your presence.