What's it all About? Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) is on the campaign circuit for a Democratic Primary. It all seems to boil down to who wins the state of Ohio, it's a critical state to win and ultimately whoever wins in Ohio wins the whole shabang and will go on to run for President. Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is the Governors second in command after Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the story revolves around the twist and turns of a campaign trail. Lot's of double crossing, side switching, scandals and men sitting around talking about politics. Paul Giamatti pops up too which is always great!
Best bits? Ryan Gosling is flavour of the month at the moment and in my opinion rightly so. He's seriously awesome in this. He clearly believes in the campaign but is young and naive and ultimately gets dragged into the trenches of American politics. The choices he makes in the film never seem whimsical and he conveys his thought process on screen insanely well, he clearly got into the mindset of his character. Great performance.
Did it make you think thoughts? I really enjoyed this film. It's had mixed reviews, some have said 'if you don't have an understanding of American politics then don't bother watching it?!' I'm sorry but that is garbage, it's extremely easy to follow and constantly engaging, for me the politics in this movie is the backdrop to some fantastic characters. I don't mind lots of people sitting around talking in films as long as the script is good, thankfully in this the script is amazing, there's some really juicy dialogue for all of these great actors to chew on!
Would you watch it again? For sure. Big fan.
Rating (out of 100%): 85% Great stuff from Clooney, proving he's not only got the acting chops but the directing ones to boot. Bravo!
