Film: J. Edgar
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judy Dench, Naomi Watts
Direction: Clint Eastwood
Value: 4/5
Just how much creative flexibility can a writer or a filmmaker exercise while attempting a biopic? (Without getting incredibly boring, like say, Milk?) Limited, if any. But an apt pace and reasonably comprehensible screenplay can still manage to rivet your attention. Just like Clint Eastwood does with J. Edgar.
The story of FBI's founder, J. Edgar Hoover, talks of his maverick ways with the institution and in his dealings with crime during The Great Depression and beyond, with flair. The story flits smoothly between an aged FBI chief narrating "his version" of the story of FBI's coming into its own, and the past journey of a lonely, asocial officer into a chief determined to safeguard the very existence of an institution.
Beautiful. Also, it is very exciting to know that Leonardo DiCaprio has after long essayed a character that does not lose his mental balance right through the end of the film. That is impressive indeed. I call that a "daringly different role". Also, the homosexual tension between Edgar (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Clyde (Armie Hammer) has been depicted subtly (thank God) without unnecessary Bhandarkarizations and jelly jokes. But the scenes that really take your heart away are the ones between Edgar and his mother (Judy Dench). A simple, oft repeated phrase, "Yes, mother" speaks enough about the equation between a disciplinarian mother and an obedient son. Add to that a charming sequence where a mother who fears her son's wavering sexual tendencies teaches him how to dance with women.
The major question is: What was Naomi Watts doing in the film? I mean, yes, there might have been a Helen Gandy, but Naomi Watts? To open doors and make phone calls to usher a doctor in? There is an obvious misfit there. Also, who was the old Clyde's make-up artist please? I almost thought you were making fun of the film with that makeover.
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