J. Edgar

Clint Eastwood's career as director has been a strong mix of the good, the bad... and you get where I'm going with this. The mid-2000s saw some of his stronger films but between then and his biggest financially successful film with American Sniper, there was also J. Edgar in 2011 that failed to perform well with critics and audiences. 

Shot in a similarly dark fashion used with Letters from Iwo Jima and Changeling, this film follows the controversial life of J. Edgar Hoover and his rise to power as the head of the F.B.I where he stayed for nearly fifty years. This is broken down into his early life in 1919, his work to hunt down hoodlums and communists in the 1930s and his latter years in the 1960s as a much older man refusing to relinquish his control. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Hoover in all three phases of the man's life that was certainly an interesting one but is regrettably not quite captured so well in this film. 

Eastwood's directorial style is one of simple substance that refuses to overly complicate a subject matter as seen with great effect in Sully but also in, what I consider, some of his weaker films with The Mule and Richard Jewell, where a different approach might have been more successful. J. Edgar shows moments of promise thanks to its talented cast but Clint's simplistic approach hinders would could, have been an enthralling portrayal of one of America's most powerful figures. 

Part of the problem is that Eastwood seemingly refuses to delve into Hoover's fall from grace which would have been fascinating. When discussing some of the themes used here, DiCaprio described how "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" but those scenes must have been cut as the film seems more interested several other dreary subplots that fail to satisfy as the story shifts into becoming a melodrama in the closing act. We do catch glimpses of Hoover's power over various political leaders and his attacks against Martin Luther King Jr. but none of this materialises to anything substantially interesting or that forms the foundation for the film. 

What's most painful of all is that DiCaprio is fantastic in the lead role but the surrounding material just isn't there to do justice to his talents in what could have been one of his best films. Instead we have a narratively confusing biography that survives on the strength of its leading star but will still have viewers checking their watches. The door is still left open for another attempt to revisit this intriguing figure in American history and hopefully a stronger film will follow as this is one I can't truly recommend.