J. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the FBI for nearly 50 years, looks back on his professional and personal life: pioneer, closet homosexual, shady, rude, egotistical, unrelenting and all in all not a very nice person.He did, however, think of areas in forensics (fingerprinting,etc) and intelligence which we still implement today. A smart man with little heart and a twisted soul!
This was, in my opinion, too ambitious a fete for Eastwood. In the past he has done some good stuff when directing other movies (excellent job in "Gran Torino" , pretty good job with "Million Dollar Baby" et. al.) However, here he seems lost. He makes uninteresting and predictable choices and worse of all casting, who I usually like, Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover. DiCaprio is full of histrionics. He over-acts the part and makes it a caricature. It was annoying after a while which made it hard to focus on the historical issues presented. I'm usually upset that a director does not develop a character, here Eastwood over-kills it.
What could have been a great movie-after all, Hoover is one of the most controversial people in the 20th century- felt like a history lesson, except the class ran too long. If he had edited many of the parts with Hoover's mother and sped up other areas, it might have worked.
I did appreciate the honesty of Eastwood -not pussy footing around the most controversial detail regarding Hoover's homosexual reputation yet closeted existence. His long time companion (Clyde Tolson) was played to perfection by Armie Hammer, in the best performance of his career to date. Their love story was well done.
Naomi Watts was excellent too. Judi Dench was good.
Overall the entire movie was pretty boring.
Eastwood did capture all the periods beautifully in clothing, hair & make-up. Armie Hammer is unrecognizable as an old man--WOW!
What was interesting to me was that Eastwood, in his real life, is a staunch conservative yet the movie serves a very liberal slant. I could have sworn, if the movie was better directed, that it was an Oliver Stone project. That was the most mind blowing part of watching this movie.
Good for you Eastwood!
I think the "BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL" may have a less tedious version of Hoover's life. I will check that out soon.
Now that it's a rental -and you can watch it in sections while not fear paying $13.00 for this- I rate it 2.5 stars of out 5---your call...
No comments:
Post a Comment