J. Edgar

Year: 2011

Grade: C

Country: USA

Director: Eastwood

Review

another film that has some potential that is unfulfilled. pretty much across the board this film fails to succeed like it could have. dustin lance black writes another story about a gay man in political service. milk was a pretty good story and movie, j. edgar, not so much. his agenda, it seems, is to expose america to historical gay figures in a light that shows they’re just like everyone else. he accomplished that in both milk and j. edgar, but failed to provide much in the way of interesting narrative here. he’s an ex-mormon gay guy so his filmography (milk, j. edgar and big love) makes perfect sense to date.

leo is usually quite reliable, but here he falls flat. naomi watts is decent in a supporting role as is judi dench. armey hammer is quite bad. eastwood is a capable director of course, but it seems like he slept-walked through this one. it’s shot well enough and has some grit to it, but there’s just no bite or anything new to say here. it’s another conservative political type with mommy issues and there wasn’t any life given to it by anyone involved.

Watched in theater