The film opens with an ageing J.Edgar Hoover dictating his memoirs to an F.B.I underling, with more than a hint of nostalgia in his voice. The story goes back and forth from various periods in Hoover’s career, pivotal moments in America’s history, his long running battles with the criminal underworld, targets which he deemed as threats to the nation’s security and his relationships with the very few people closest to him.
There are excellent performances in Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy, Hoover’s long time secretary and confidant and also Dame Judi Dench as his mother who has more than a passing influence over his life and career. While Di Capri is no stranger to the biopic, (his memorable performance as Howard Hughes in The Aviator saw him portray a man who although himself paranoid and eccentric was seen in an affectionate light.) Here Di Caprio has done quite the opposite with Hoover, a complex character who’s attention to detail bordered on the extreme. We see virtually the entire movie through J Edgar’s eyes and it becomes apparent that it is quite rose tinted to put it mildly. The script also explores the very important relationship with his no.2 Clyde Tolson, played brilliantly by Armie Hammer and elaborates on the theory that Hoover himself was homosexual. It is handled sensitively and no surprise given that the script was by Dustin Lance Black who a scripting Oscar for his work in Milk, the story of the Gay rights activist starring Sean Penn.
Right that’s enough spoilers, visually the movie hums along quite nicely and thankfully is easy enough to follow, particularly when you consider all the back and forth watching Di Caprio portraying Hoover as a young man of 24 making his mark in the Bureau, to the all seeing all powerful leader he was to become. My only real gripe, visually with the movie is the use of prosthetics in ageing the characters. They are quite poor at best, with Naomi watts the only one convincing for me anyway in that regard. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but my feeling is that Eastwood tried to fit in too much here, it would have been better perhaps to stick with fewer side plots and really show us the depth of Hoover’s persona. This movie was not the great picture I had hoped it would be and although Di Caprio’s performance was again exemplary, he alone could not save this picture from becoming purely average. One thing which can be taken for granted these days is that Di Caprio will guarantee an audience a great performance, the man is box office gold, and it seems only a matter of time before he will win an Oscar, unfortunately it won’t be for J. Edgar.
3 STARS
