THE IDES OF MARCH
4 out of 5 stars

ahh...the wonderful world of (dirty) politics... we enter a world that’s all about “fucking someone over” so you could further ur own agenda. hey, why not? we’re all in it to win it, right? integrity, smhtegrity... :P

plotwise, this was a film adaptation of beau willimon’s 2008 play “farragut north”, and it starts out with a boyish, handsome guy named stephen meyers (ryan gosling- HOTT!), junior campaign manager for governor mike morris of PA (george clooney- NAILING this role!), making sure everything is perfect for the debate later on that evening with the governor’s opposing rival sen. ted pullman for the ohio primary. we learn that stephen works for the senior campaign manager, paul zara (philip seymour hoffman- EXCELLENT in this role!), whose sort of a mentor to young stephen, and they exchange words with tom duffy (paul giamatti- EXCELLENT in this role!) about how duffy’s guy pullman is gonna lose to their man. but then, while paul is off schmoozing sen. thompson for his 365 delegates (they need those votes in order to win OH), duffy calls up stephen posing as his dad, and asking to meet with him in some sports bar. stephen doesn’t really know what to do, but meets with him anyway... as it turns out, duffy offers stephen the opportunity to come work for him and pullman’s campaign, stating that the republicans are going to vote for pullman because they hate morris and don’t want him winning the democratic nomination. stephen is caught in a pickle, but there’s bigger fish to fry... he ends up hooking up with one of the interns named molly (evan rachel wood) working on the campaign, and finds out a very dirty secret involving her and his beloved governor... (when he pieces it together, RG’s face is PRICELESS.)  while he's trying to "fix" this situation with the intern, he learns that someone had leaked his meeting with duffy and a pesky NY times reporter named ida (marissa tomei) is trying to blackmail him for info. on the secret meeting with sen. thompson.  then...he gets a big lecture from paul re: loyalty and trust, and gets fired.  i guess fortunately for stephen, he's got that dirty card up his sleeve and he's gonna work for duffy/pullman now, right?  think again... this is POLITICS, remembaaaaa? :P 

honestly, if the movie was just about paul and tom...it would have been 5 stars/AWESOME. but, the focus for this one was more on stephen and the govenor, and i thought the characters could have been fleshed out some more. the script alone is EXCELLENT (it was derived from a play so DUH), and the cast/acting is excellent as well. that scene in the restaurant kitchen is INTENSE. (could cut that tension with a steak knife) also, talk about a movie where back-stabbing is the name of the game. and...stephen’s transformation from idealist to cynic is incredible. ;)