Personal and Confidential

"J. Edgar"

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is a very talented and extremely lucky guy.  At the age of only 37, he has been able to propel himself into a household name.  DiCaprio is arguably one of the most sought after actors right now in Hollywood.  Here is a list of directors he has worked with:  Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Steven Speilberg, Baz Luhrmann, Christopher Nolan, Sam Mendes, Danny Boyle, and James Cameron.  That is an incredibly impressive list of elite directors.  All of them must have seen something in DiCaprio and wanted to work with him.  Now Leo can add director Clint Eastwood to his list.  Over the past fifteen years DiCaprio's performances have varied but that is also due in part to the overall strength of the films.  Eastwood's J. Edgar had all the right ingredients to be a good film, but unfortunately left a bland after taste.

J. Edgar Hoover (DiCaprio) has led a long and supposedly interesting life.  He decides to tell us his life story by dictating it to a typist who is writing up his manuscript.  The film shows us more of what kind of man he was in his personal life.  The relationship with his mother (Judi Dench) and the intimate affair he had with Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) take up good chunks of the film.  J. Edgar also addresses Hoover's need to crack down on all the greed and corruption stemming from America's most wanted gangsters.  The formation of the F.B.I., the technique of finger printing, the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, and the growing threat of the communism are key events that are played out during the film. 

The screenplay was written by Dustin Lance Black who received an Oscar for his work on Milk.  There are some similarities between Milk and J. Edgar particularly with how each film opens.  They both have the main character dictating to us their life story.  I didn't have a problem with Harvey Milk retelling us his life story in that particular manner.  However, the fact that Black starts this screenplay essentially the same way makes me question his ability to write bio pics.  Also, Milk was an openly gay man whereas Hoover was most likely a closeted homosexual, although it was never proven.  J. Edgar though flings those closet doors wide open making it blatantly clear that it is of the opinion of Mr. Black that Mr. Hoover was a homosexual.  Black himself is gay.  One thing I liked about Milk was that it was written with such a clear and passionate message about societal issues that we are still battling today.  I didn't feel that Black had anything to say though when writing about Hoover.  It felt as though one of the few reasons Black wanted to write a bio pic about this guy was because of sexual orientation.   

The film’s biggest flaw lies within the character of J. Edgar Hoover himself.  The man's self-inflated power hungry egotistical mind is too big and unlikeable for this picture.  Never was I able to grow attached and really get behind his causes.  Clearly Hoover is responsible for some truly monumental achievements in recent American history but that doesn't mean that I respect him and what he stood for given his attitude toward so many people.  The film comes off as too dry and uninteresting.  It’s overly long in in what it wants to accomplish.  The content of J. Edgar feels like a film that could be shown in a classroom setting.

I can't understand why Eastwood would sign on to do something like this.  He definitely makes films for a more mature crowd.  But even if I were around during Hoover's time I think this film would still miss the mark.  It is nowhere near as enjoyable as some of the more recent bio pics that we have seen like Ray or Walk the Line.  If Eastwood really wanted to work with DiCaprio than he should have waited and cast him in a different project.  I thought that he was quite effective in his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator.  With J. Edgar though, DiCaprio seems too young to take on such a role even with fairy convincing old age make up.  His interpretation and understanding of the character seems stilted.  The film does have a few good scenes which are mostly the ones with Hammer.  It's too bad that this collaboration between Eastwood and DiCaprio turned out to be so tepid and flavorless.  The film doesn't add anything to what kind of person actually was because not much is known about him to begin with.  All his personal and confidential files were shredded.  If Black, DiCaprio, and Eastwood wanted to shed light on this historical American figure, I certainly was still left in the dark.