HIGH-flying Democrat presidential candidate Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) has a knack for spouting the perfect sound bite with a winning smile.
Flanked by his campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and brilliant press secretary Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), Morris seems destined for the White House. However a dalliance with an intern leaves Morris’s reputation hanging by a thread as the media vultures begin to circle. Meanwhile, rival campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) is looking for chinks in Morris’s armour. The Ides Of March is an engrossing thriller that doesn't get too bogged down in the political process.
Clooney is charm personified and Hoffman and Giamatti are deliciously oily as rival puppet masters but it is Gosling who delivers the stand-out performance, transforming from a wide-eyed strategist, convinced that Morris is the man to affect change, into an emotionally shattered husk.
