J. Edgar: A Man in History

Title: J. Edgar.

Director: Clint Eastwood.

Actors: Leonardo Di Caprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench.

Country: United States.

Year: 2011.

Clint Eastwood returns to the director’s chair with a story that, once again, is character driven. After his last few films I was very excited to watch this one.  Generally, Eastwood’s films are a guarantee, but this time the movie falls short, becoming one of his least strong stories.

“J.Edgar” tells the story of John Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) who was the head of the FBI for more than four decades mid-twentieth century. It focuses on his flawed character and the personal perspective of what his post meant. Also, the way he thought, they way he saw life, and the relationship’s that marked his life.

The movie’s strength comes from the powerful performances of the main cast, especially Leonardo DiCaprio. Once again, he succeeds in becoming this character rather than just portraying him. He uses his physical portrayal –things like his constant pacing- to make the viewer think he is trying to control his real and dark emotions.

He is supported by a strong group of actors starting with Naomi Watts, who acts as Hoover’s faithful and motherly secretary. Judi Dench plays an overbearing mother with tremendous power over her son. Armie Hammer, who delivers the strongest supporting performance, plays Clyde Tolson, the right hand and supposed lover of Hoover, with a mixture of mystery and charm.

The acting direction is the highlight of the picture. Clint Eastwood has a talent to make each performance, however small, memorable. These are enhanced by the cinematography and lighting, which in traditional Eastwood style, use a lot of shadows and opaque, dark colors. The colors accentuate the darkness of the world the audience is visiting. The shadows help create a certain aura of mystery to the characters, suggesting that history will never tell us who these people really were.

So, where does the movie stumble? In its form. The content of the movie is good, however the pacing and constant time jumps make it lose impact. When you start feeling a connection with the story, we are suddenly forced out of it and it ends up feeling disjointed and slow.

The other thing that makes the movie fall is the terrible make up. It just looks fake and it is completely distracting. It wouldn’t matter so much if only a small part of the movie was using this resource, but it isn’t, and it takes a lot of power from the most emotional scenes.

J. Edgar is one of Clint Eastwood’s weakest movies. The content is all there, but the way the story is told makes it fall. It is slow and sometimes confusing, which made me lose interest quickly. Despite all of this, Leonardo DiCaprio gives another award worthy performance, as usual. So despite great performances, J.Edgar fails to be as captivating as it strived to be.