Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Movie review - "J Edgar" (2011) **1/2

Props to Clint Eastwood and writer Duncan Lance Black for trying to give an empathetic depiction of perhaps the 20th century's most famous law enforcement official but this really should have been a mini series, or else it should have focused on one story instead of going all over the shop - not only do we get gay romance with Clyde (sensitively handled), there are the 1919 anarchist bombings, the Lindbergh kidnappings, chasing down gangsters, dealing with the Kennedys and Nixon etc in the 60s and 70s. It bites off more than it can chew. It's kind of like one person wanted to make a movie about the Lindbergh kidnapping, then another wanted to do the gay love story, so they decided to combine them and throw a few other things in the mix - casserole filmmaking.

Also Leonard di Caprio's voice got on my nerves - he gives a good performance but we hear him talk too much. More people needed dialogue. Naomi Watts' role is rather thankless, but she's professional - as is everyone really. Period detail etc is strong - it just needed more time.

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