The season for poli-tricks

In theaters Friday: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Rampart, Safe House, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace 3D, The Vow

New on Blu-ray/DVD: Anonymous, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

As Mitt Romney plows toward the Republican National Convention with more money and momentum than any of his conservative counterparts, and Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum cling to the remaining primaries like Indiana Jones dragging through the dust behind a German cargo truck, I am reminded of something that no cognizant voter should ever doubt: There is far more going on behind the scenes on these campaigns than we’ll ever know—or if we do find out about it, its too late and really bad news.

Like an iceberg, politics goes much wider and deeper below the surface than what is revealed in stump speeches and commercials, certainly, but even during debates or on the nightly news. No film has captured this dissonance between the people of politics and their message in recent years like George Clooney’s campaign trail drama The Ides of March. Probably the film I regret missing out on most last fall, I only recently caught up with it on DVD.

“To get to the White House you have to do things most people will find morally abhorrent, and no one is immune to it.”

Ben Willimon said that. Willimon spent time as a campaign staffer for Chuck Schumer, Hilary Clinton, Howard Dean and others, and based his hit stage play Farragut North on those behind-the-scenes experiences, and The Ides of March is the film adaptation of Willimon’s play.

George Clooney directs, co-writes and stars in Ides as an ambitiously transparent democratic governor and rising candidate for president. Described as a “ruthless idealist” he’s in a heated showdown in Ohio to win his party’s nomination and a clear-cut path to the White House.

But will he sacrifice his ethics in order to gain an edge? Or will a devastating mistake lead to his own downfall? Clooney’s character hangs over the film like a specter, but the story is actually told from the perspective of a hotshot press officer for the campaign played by Ryan Gosling. Talented and razor-sharp, but not yet experienced enough to be jaded or diabolically cruel to an opponent, Gosling’s awakening and reveals that the heart of this picture is not politics.

Ides is about temptations—physical, fiscal and, above all, moral—and Gosling’s communications specialist faces all three.

The performances are outstanding, particularly the aforementioned leads and the opposing campaign managers played by the two best character actors working today: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. Evan Rachel Wood makes a surprisingly devastating turn as hot-blooded young intern with her eyes on Gosling.

As a director, Clooney manages to level dialog-heavy scenes with the ache of real tension and blood-boiling moments, just as David Fincher was able to turn a movie about two depositions and a few computer programmers into a near-heart-stopping drama.

And yet, what I appreciate is the film’s bipartisan nature. At the beginning you can’t stand the republicans, and by the end you’ll hate democrats. This film is an equal opportunity offender, which provides more than a few twists and turns, but more importantly means it likely gets far closer to the truth about politics than even some heavily-slanted “documentaries.”

The Ides of March will not tell you how to vote come November, but The Wizard of Oz didn’t exactly get Dorothy home safely, either. It just offered a fascinating peek behind the well-protected curtain.