J. Edgar (Warner Bros.)
Rated R for brief strong language.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Damon Herriman, Jeffrey Donovan, Judi Dench, Ed Westwick, Josh Lucas, Ken Howard, Stephen Root, Geoff Pierson, Lea Thompson, Gunner Wright.
Written by Dustin Lance Black.
Directed by Clint Eastwood.
GRADE: B-
REVIEW:
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this week's release of J. Edgar, the story of the powerful and enigmatic man who built the FBI into the most significant crime-fighting force in the country.
J. Edgar Hoover's story is told through the script of Dustin Lance Black and director Clint Eastwood. The story spans Hoover's life as he transforms from a shy federal office worker into one of the most feared men of the 20th Century.
Hoover's rise begins with domestic terrorism, as he investigates the bombing of his boss' home by extremists. Hoover is soon promoted within the Justice Department and meets a pretty secretary named Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) who agrees to be his personal assistant, but not his girlfriend. Miss Gandy and Hoover share a professional relationship over decades as Hoover rises to power and gathers secrets about all the most powerful politicians and Washington leaders. Gandy helps keep those secrets. All the while, Hoover never marries, and lives with his overbearing, sanctimonious mother (Judi Dench).
Hoover is soon given power to hire his own police force, and meets a handsome law school graduate named Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) in the process. Hoover is drawn to Tolson's dapper persona and physique, and soon hires him to be his deputy director. Over the years, the film depicts sexual tension between the two men who are never really act upon their homosexual impulses.
Over several decades, Hoover gathers names and intelligence on people he perceives as enemies of democracy - mostly "Marxist" radicals. As Hoover keeps files on domestic enemies, she also compiles secret files on Washington's power brokers as leverage, should his job status ever come into question.
Hoover also makes sure his image and the image of the FBI remains untarnished through creative marketing, media manipulation. He wields absolute power as FBI director to take credit for solving several number of high-profile crimes, including the kidnapping and death of the Lindbergh baby, along with the hunt for John Dillinger, and other gangsters.
As the market for domestic terrorists and gangsters dries up, Hoover turns his attention to other so-called "extremists" like Martin Luther King, who he tries to smear and blackmail.
J. Edgar depicts Hoover's legacy as a tenacious, yet paranoid crime fighter who made more enemies than friends, while struggling with his own sexuality and fractured relationships.
Eastwood and Black make a good-faith effort to depict Hoover's mean-spirited efforts to grab power and bend the law, all in the name of justice. The film also captures Hoover's lonely struggle to maintain an image that is contrary to his deep feelings, especially toward Tolson. That said, I thought Black and Eastwood spent a little too much time on the "gay" aspects of Hoover's life (which has never been verified), leaving plenty of room for speculation.
The bigger problem I had with J. Edgar has more to do with the disjointed script, which bounces around Hoover's life without much cohesive sense. Eastwood's pacing (like always) is deliberate and slow, which adds to disjointed nature of the story and makes for several fits of boredom.
DiCaprio's performance is solid, as always, but some of the makeup used to age him into the elder Hoover didn't quite pan out. Hammer's makeup to transform him into the elder Tolson is much worse, as one never forgets he's a young actor wearing thick layers of latex.
J. Edgar is an interesting film, but I'm not sure anyone will leave the theater with a clear understanding of the man.
