The Ides of March (film)
Encyclopedia
The Ides of March is a 2011 American political drama
thriller film directed by George Clooney
from a screenplay written by Clooney, along with Grant Heslov
and Beau Willimon
. The film is an adaptation
of Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North
. It stars Ryan Gosling
, George Clooney
, Philip Seymour Hoffman
, Paul Giamatti
, Marisa Tomei
, Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood
.
The Ides of March was featured as the opening film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
and at the 27th Haifa International Film Festival and was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival
. It received a wide theatrical release on October 7, 2011.
) is the Junior Campaign Manager for Mike Morris (George Clooney
), Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic
presidential candidate, competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman (Michael Mantell
). The candidates are campaigning in Ohio
. A win for Morris would all but guarantee him the nomination; a win for Pullman would give him vital momentum. Both campaigns are also attempting to enlist the endorsement of North Carolina Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright).
After a debate, Meyers is asked for a secret meeting by Pullman's Campaign Manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti
). Meyers calls his boss, Senior Campaign Manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman
), who doesn't answer. Meyers leaves a message that something important has come up. Meyers meets with Duffy who offers him a position in Senator Pullman's campaign. Meyers refuses, and asserts that he believes in Morris. Duffy tells Meyers that his optimism won't last, and that Morris will eventually be cynical and corrupt like the other candidates. Zara calls Meyers back and asks what was important but Meyers says it was nothing to worry about.
Meyers starts a sexual relationship with Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood
), an intern for Morris' campaign and daughter of Jack Stearns (Gregory Itzin
), the chairman of the Democratic National Committee
. Late one night, Meyers discovers that Morris is trying to call Molly. She and Morris had a brief sexual liaison, at a campaign stop in Iowa several weeks previously, and Molly is pregnant with Morris' baby. Meyers helps her with money for an abortion and drives her to the clinic.
Meyers admits to Zara that he met with Duffy, who told Meyers that Pullman will offer Senator Thompson the position of Secretary of State, guaranteeing his victory by bringing hundreds of delegates with him. Ida (Marisa Tomei
), a reporter for the New York Times, reveals that an anonymous source leaked his encounter with Duffy to her and that she will publish unless Meyers gives her all of the information about his meeting with Thompson. Meyers comes to Zara for help. Zara reveals that he leaked the meeting to Ida and fires Meyers from the campaign for showing a "lack of loyalty" in meeting with Duffy.
Meyers offers his services to Duffy but Duffy doesn't want to hire Meyers. In a Machiavellian
scheme, Duffy admits he met with Meyers in order to induce Meyers to tell Zara about the meeting. Duffy correctly predicted that this would lead Zara (in his paranoia) to remove Meyers from Morris' campaign, thus weakening Morris. Meanwhile, Molly learns that Meyers has been fired and, fearing that her secret will now be exposed once he leaves, commits apparent suicide by overdosing on pills. Meyers feels guilty about this, as he did intend to expose Morris' affair with Molly in exchange for a job on Senator Pullman's campaign.
Meyers later confronts Morris and tells him that he will expose the affair with Molly if Morris does not replace Zara with himself, as well as offer Senator Thompson a place on the ticket, guaranteeing Thompson's support. Morris relents when Meyers claims he has a suicide note which he says he stole from Molly's room. Later at Molly's funeral, Zara compliments Meyers on using his own secrets to his advantage. Having accepted Thompson's endorsement and his delegates, thereby giving him enough delegates to gain the nomination, Morris becomes the nominee, despite losing the Ohio primary to Pullman.
Now Senior Campaign Manager, Meyers attends a press conference organized by Ida. He realizes that Duffy was right, and he has betrayed everything he believed in for success and revenge. The movie ends as he takes his seat for a television interview.
reported that Clooney signed on to produce, direct, and star in the film adaptation
of Beau Willimon's Broadway
play Farragut North
. Exclusive Media Group, Cross Creek Pictures, Smoke House Pictures, and Leonardo DiCaprio
's Appian Way Productions financed the film. Filming in Cincinnati, Ohio
began in February 2011 in Downtown Cincinnati
at Fountain Square
, Over-the-Rhine
historic district
, Northside
, Mount Lookout, Xavier University, other neighborhoods and at Miami University's Farmer School of Business. Principal photography
also took place in Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan
. On March 14, filming began at the University of Michigan
and included 1,000 extras.
The theatrical release failed to recognize Cincinnati in the credits as a filming location. Producer and screenplay co-writer, Grant Heslov said, “The omission of Cincinnati in the credits was an inadvertent mistake, something that slipped through the cracks, unfortunately.” Heslov also stated that the credits would be corrected for the home release of the film.
. Sony Pictures Entertainment
bought the distribution rights for the United States and Canada. Sony wanted Clooney to keep the play's title, but The Ides of March was finalized. The Ides of March was originally planned to have a limited release
in December 2011 and a wide release
in January 2012. However, Sony eventually moved the film's opening date to October 14, 2011. This was later moved again, to October 7, 2011.
reports that 85% of 190 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.3 out of 10. Metacritic
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 67 based on 43 reviews. CinemaScore
polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on an A+ to F scale.
According to A. O. Scott
, the film is "in large part the tale of a professional politico's loss of innocence. Not Morris's, but that of Stephen Meyers, a young hotshot on the governor’s campaign staff who is played, with sad-eyed intensity, by Ryan Gosling." But "it is difficult, really, to connect this fable to the world it pretends to represent. Whatever happens in 2012
, within either party or in the contest between them, it seems fair to say that quite a lot will be at stake. That is not the case in The Ides of March, which is less an allegory
of the American political process than a busy, foggy, mildly entertaining antidote to it."
at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
. Stephen Mirrione
won the Hollywood Editor Award for his work on The Ides of March at the Hollywood Movie Awards.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
thriller film directed by George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
from a screenplay written by Clooney, along with Grant Heslov
Grant Heslov
Grant Heslov is an American actor, film producer, screenwriter and director.-Early life:Heslov was born in Los Angeles, into a Jewish family and was raised in the Palos Verdes area of Los Angeles. He attended Palos Verdes High School, the University of Southern California along with friend Tate...
and Beau Willimon
Beau Willimon
Beau Willimon is a playwright, whose works have been developed and performed at MCC Theater, Ars Nova, HERE Arts Center, the Phoenix Theatre in Arizona, and the Battersea Arts Centre in London....
. The film is an adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North
Farragut North (play)
Farragut North is a 2008 play written by Beau Willimon, loosely based on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean. The original script won the 2005 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest , where it was first produced, to rave reviews by critics and a warm response from audiences...
. It stars Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
, George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
, Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
, Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
, Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
.
The Ides of March was featured as the opening film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
68th Venice International Film Festival
The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, took place from 31 August to 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Film-maker award on 4 September,...
and at the 27th Haifa International Film Festival and was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival
2011 Toronto International Film Festival
The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival, was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011.Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film was From the Sky Down, a documentary film about the band...
. It received a wide theatrical release on October 7, 2011.
Plot
Stephen Meyers (Ryan GoslingRyan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
) is the Junior Campaign Manager for Mike Morris (George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
), Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
presidential candidate, competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman (Michael Mantell
Michael Mantell
Michael Mantell is an American actor. He has had many small parts in American movies and television shows, including Eight Men Out , Bart Got a Room, Ocean's Thirteen, Thank You for Smoking, Angel, How I Met Your Mother, Love and Marriage, and The West Wing...
). The candidates are campaigning in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. A win for Morris would all but guarantee him the nomination; a win for Pullman would give him vital momentum. Both campaigns are also attempting to enlist the endorsement of North Carolina Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright).
After a debate, Meyers is asked for a secret meeting by Pullman's Campaign Manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
). Meyers calls his boss, Senior Campaign Manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
), who doesn't answer. Meyers leaves a message that something important has come up. Meyers meets with Duffy who offers him a position in Senator Pullman's campaign. Meyers refuses, and asserts that he believes in Morris. Duffy tells Meyers that his optimism won't last, and that Morris will eventually be cynical and corrupt like the other candidates. Zara calls Meyers back and asks what was important but Meyers says it was nothing to worry about.
Meyers starts a sexual relationship with Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
), an intern for Morris' campaign and daughter of Jack Stearns (Gregory Itzin
Gregory Itzin
Gregory Martin Itzin is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as disgraced U.S. President Charles Logan in the television series 24.-Early life:...
), the chairman of the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
. Late one night, Meyers discovers that Morris is trying to call Molly. She and Morris had a brief sexual liaison, at a campaign stop in Iowa several weeks previously, and Molly is pregnant with Morris' baby. Meyers helps her with money for an abortion and drives her to the clinic.
Meyers admits to Zara that he met with Duffy, who told Meyers that Pullman will offer Senator Thompson the position of Secretary of State, guaranteeing his victory by bringing hundreds of delegates with him. Ida (Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
), a reporter for the New York Times, reveals that an anonymous source leaked his encounter with Duffy to her and that she will publish unless Meyers gives her all of the information about his meeting with Thompson. Meyers comes to Zara for help. Zara reveals that he leaked the meeting to Ida and fires Meyers from the campaign for showing a "lack of loyalty" in meeting with Duffy.
Meyers offers his services to Duffy but Duffy doesn't want to hire Meyers. In a Machiavellian
Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe and other works...
scheme, Duffy admits he met with Meyers in order to induce Meyers to tell Zara about the meeting. Duffy correctly predicted that this would lead Zara (in his paranoia) to remove Meyers from Morris' campaign, thus weakening Morris. Meanwhile, Molly learns that Meyers has been fired and, fearing that her secret will now be exposed once he leaves, commits apparent suicide by overdosing on pills. Meyers feels guilty about this, as he did intend to expose Morris' affair with Molly in exchange for a job on Senator Pullman's campaign.
Meyers later confronts Morris and tells him that he will expose the affair with Molly if Morris does not replace Zara with himself, as well as offer Senator Thompson a place on the ticket, guaranteeing Thompson's support. Morris relents when Meyers claims he has a suicide note which he says he stole from Molly's room. Later at Molly's funeral, Zara compliments Meyers on using his own secrets to his advantage. Having accepted Thompson's endorsement and his delegates, thereby giving him enough delegates to gain the nomination, Morris becomes the nominee, despite losing the Ohio primary to Pullman.
Now Senior Campaign Manager, Meyers attends a press conference organized by Ida. He realizes that Duffy was right, and he has betrayed everything he believed in for success and revenge. The movie ends as he takes his seat for a television interview.
Cast
- Ryan GoslingRyan GoslingRyan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
as Stephen Meyers, the mastermind behind Morris' campaign. - George ClooneyGeorge ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
as Mike Morris, Governor of Pennsylvania and a DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
presidential candidate. - Philip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
as Paul Zara, Morris' campaign manager and Myers' superior and mentor. - Paul GiamattiPaul GiamattiPaul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
as Tom Duffy, a rival campaign manager. - Evan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
as Molly Stearns, an intern for Morris' campaign. - Marisa TomeiMarisa TomeiMarisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
as Ida Horowicz, a reporter for the New York Times. - Jeffrey Wright as Senator Thompson, a senator from North Carolina.
- Max MinghellaMax MinghellaMax Giorgio Choa Minghella is an English actor. The son of film director Anthony Minghella, he has appeared in several dramatic American films, making his feature film debut in 2005's Bee Season and starring in 2006's Art School Confidential...
as Ben Harpen, a member of Morris' campaign staff. - Jennifer EhleJennifer EhleJennifer Ehle is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.-Early life:...
as Cindy Morris, wife to Governor Mike Morris. - Gregory ItzinGregory ItzinGregory Martin Itzin is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as disgraced U.S. President Charles Logan in the television series 24.-Early life:...
as Jack Stearns, father of Molly Stearns and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. - Michael MantellMichael MantellMichael Mantell is an American actor. He has had many small parts in American movies and television shows, including Eight Men Out , Bart Got a Room, Ocean's Thirteen, Thank You for Smoking, Angel, How I Met Your Mother, Love and Marriage, and The West Wing...
as Senator Pullman, Morris' opponent in the Democratic primaries.
Production
In October 2010, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that Clooney signed on to produce, direct, and star in the film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Beau Willimon's Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play Farragut North
Farragut North (play)
Farragut North is a 2008 play written by Beau Willimon, loosely based on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean. The original script won the 2005 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest , where it was first produced, to rave reviews by critics and a warm response from audiences...
. Exclusive Media Group, Cross Creek Pictures, Smoke House Pictures, and Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
's Appian Way Productions financed the film. Filming in Cincinnati, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
began in February 2011 in Downtown Cincinnati
Downtown Cincinnati
Downtown Cincinnati is the central business district of Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of its 52 neighborhoods.-Geography:Downtown Cincinnati's streets are arranged in a grid configuration. It is bisected by Vine Street....
at Fountain Square
Fountain Square, Cincinnati
Fountain Square is a city square in Cincinnati. Founded in 1871, it was renovated in 1971 and 2005 and currently features many shops, restaurants, hotels, and offices.- History :...
, Over-the-Rhine
Over-the-Rhine
Over-the-Rhine, sometimes shortened to OTR, is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is believed to be the largest, most intact urban historic district in the United States. Over-the-Rhine was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 with 943 contributing buildings...
historic district
Historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries, historic districts receive legal protection from development....
, Northside
Northside, Cincinnati
Northside is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was originally known as Cumminsville, but changed names to "Northside" several decades ago after I-74 divided the neighborhood into Northside and South Cumminsville...
, Mount Lookout, Xavier University, other neighborhoods and at Miami University's Farmer School of Business. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
also took place in Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. On March 14, filming began at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and included 1,000 extras.
The theatrical release failed to recognize Cincinnati in the credits as a filming location. Producer and screenplay co-writer, Grant Heslov said, “The omission of Cincinnati in the credits was an inadvertent mistake, something that slipped through the cracks, unfortunately.” Heslov also stated that the credits would be corrected for the home release of the film.
Release
The Ides of March premiered on August 31, 2011 as the opening film of the 68th Venice International Film Festival68th Venice International Film Festival
The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, took place from 31 August to 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Film-maker award on 4 September,...
. Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
bought the distribution rights for the United States and Canada. Sony wanted Clooney to keep the play's title, but The Ides of March was finalized. The Ides of March was originally planned to have a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
in December 2011 and a wide release
Wide release
Wide release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing nationally . Specifically, a movie is considered to be in wide release when it is on 600 screens or more in the United States and Canada.In the US, films holding an NC-17 rating almost never have a...
in January 2012. However, Sony eventually moved the film's opening date to October 14, 2011. This was later moved again, to October 7, 2011.
Critical reception
The film received positive reviews. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 85% of 190 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.3 out of 10. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 67 based on 43 reviews. CinemaScore
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.-Background:...
polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on an A+ to F scale.
According to A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
, the film is "in large part the tale of a professional politico's loss of innocence. Not Morris's, but that of Stephen Meyers, a young hotshot on the governor’s campaign staff who is played, with sad-eyed intensity, by Ryan Gosling." But "it is difficult, really, to connect this fable to the world it pretends to represent. Whatever happens in 2012
United States elections, 2012
The 2012 United States elections will be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The 57th quadrennial presidential election will be held on this date, coinciding with Senate elections where 33 races will occur, as well as House of Representatives elections to elect the members for the 113th Congress...
, within either party or in the contest between them, it seems fair to say that quite a lot will be at stake. That is not the case in The Ides of March, which is less an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
of the American political process than a busy, foggy, mildly entertaining antidote to it."
Accolades
On September 9, 2011, the film won the Brian PrizeBrian Prize
The Brian Prize is the trophy awarded from 2006 to “A film that highlights and enhances the values of rationality, respect for human rights, democracy, pluralism, promotion of individuality, freedom of conscience, expression and research, the principle of equal opportunities in public...
at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
68th Venice International Film Festival
The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, took place from 31 August to 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was presented with the Glory to the Film-maker award on 4 September,...
. Stephen Mirrione
Stephen Mirrione
Stephen Mirrione is an American film editor. He won an Academy Award for his editing of the film Traffic .-Life and career:...
won the Hollywood Editor Award for his work on The Ides of March at the Hollywood Movie Awards.