J. Edgar (**)
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Noami Watts, Josh Lucas,
Judi Dench, Jeffrey Donovan
Seen: January 28th 2012
** Out of ****
J. Edgar is based on the life of John Edgar Hoover, the man who
started the FBI (initially just the Bureau of Investigation) in the United
States of America, and then ran this agency for nearly 50 years until his death
in 1972. He was known as a hoarder of information, with his secret files being
the talk of conspiracy theory since even before his death (reference to this is
made in many movies, including one I specifically remember – right at the end
of the classic action movie The Rock). There has been endless speculation as to
what information these files hold, and as of yet no one knows, as they were
never recovered.
The movie continually switches between an old Hoover dictating the
story of his life at the FBI to a junior agent (continually replaced due to
Hoover’s disapproval of each specific young agent), and a younger Hoover in the
events he talks of in the dictation. In both timelines DiCaprio portrays
Hoover, with expert make-up adding the years for the older Hoover. Starting
with the Palmer Raids (an attempt by the Department of Justice to arrest and
deport political anarchists), the movie follows Hoover’s career establishing
the Bureau and growing its stature and influence. The movie spends time on major
cases Hoover and his secretary, Helen Gandy (Watts), was involved with; some
personally, some from his office with other agents doing the legwork he takes
credit for as he dictates. There’s the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s
(Lucas) son, the Kennedy sex-saga, and an attack on the credibility of Reverend
Martin Luther King Junior while the movie takes care to at the very least
mention the influence Hoover had on crime fighting in establishing, among other
things, national fingerprint databases and forensic laboratories. The movie also
ventures into Hoover’s private life, one where his father lost his faculties
early on and his mother (Dench) raised him with a particular mindset of being
someone important, and there is quiet speculative allusion made of Hoover
having been a closet homosexual and cross-dresser, but these are only small
moments.
J. Edgar was relatively interesting and entertaining during the scenes
depicting the creation of the FBI and during some of the historical scenes
recreating cases from the 30’s and 40’s. Where the movie completely lost my
interest was when it veered into Hoover’s private life, be it the somewhat odd relationship
with his mother, or the somewhat shamelessly romantically longing one with his
second-in-command, Clyde Tolson (Hammer) (Brokeback FBI?). The movie reached a
point where I really felt that it would be a good place to end, and kept going.
When Tolson stumbles into the room at the end of the movie he walks extremely slowly
as a very sick old man, and I couldn’t help but feel that the movie was
stuttering along at an even slower pace in this moment. J Edgar wasted
potential: DiCaprio and Hammer’s acting stands tall and the make-up is very
well done, but there are too many annoyances; Hoover’s voice as an old man
sounds exactly like he does as a young man, and the movie is very slow and will
hold interest only for avid American Historians (even here it may stumble on
points of inaccuracy). In my opinion J Edgar is a failure, it is boring and
irrelevant. Rather wait for a more exciting movie… any other movie should do.
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