With his latest, “J. Edgar,” director Clint Eastwood attempts to capture one of 20th century America’s most enigmatic figures. Unfortunately, he doesn’t succeed. The film is built around Hoover dictating his version of his life story to a young agent shortly before his death in 1972. However, Hoover is not trustworthy when it comes to the truth. The narrative jumps from the Red Scare ‘Palmer Raids’ of 1919 and 1920 and touching on the early days of the bureau, the Lindbergh kidnapping, the war on John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, the Kennedys and the civil rights movement, which Hoover saw as a communist conspiracy. Hoover’s life is molded largely by his smothering mother (Judi Dench) who sees her son as the family’s ticket to prominence. The only woman other than his mother to play a significant role in Hoover’s life is his loyal secretary Helen Gandy (a very good Naomi Watts), who worked with him from the first days of the bureau to the time of his death. The most important person in his life, though, is Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), a smart, fashion-conscious, upwardly mobile law school graduate, who becomes Hoover’s life-long companion.
By movie’s end, Hoover is still shrouded in mystery. At most, the movie manages an overview of Hoover’s career while his motivations, sexual orientation and manipulative paranoid personality are made no clearer. Maybe it’s because the unfocused script hopscotches from time period to time period, without much narrative coherence. Maybe it’s because we never really get to know J. Edgar, a man who used the FBI as his personal secret police, compiling files on his ‘enemies’ that he used to intimidate (or blackmail) eight different presidents. Maybe it’s because Eastwood’s directorial style keeps us at a distance, preventing Hoover from becoming a figure we can understand. And maybe it’s because DiCaprio is miscast although he pours himself into the role. (Anyone want to consider how Phillip Seymour Hoffman would be as Hoover?) As a history lesson, this movie might have some value. But the huge amount of material becomes somewhat numbing, especially without any great revelations. It also doesn’t help that the actors spend much of the film laboring beneath mounds of aging makeup. It’s not that “J. Edgar” is such a bad movie. It’s just ineffectual. 11/10/11
1 comment:
I think I pretty much knew who J Edgar was prior to viewing this bio-pic. I was hoping that Eastwood could come up with a surprise or two but he did't. DiCaprio did an "ok" job in the lead role and there were some other good acting here but the weak screenplay trumped the whole movie. I have grown to expect more from Clint.
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