J. Edgar

A lot of great work went into the editing, acting, set design and period stylization of J. Edgar. It is definitely a more fun and livelier movie than Lincoln. However, it should have focused more on what makes it attractive to the audience. Hoover’s attempt to introduce the revolutionary idea of collecting fingerprints (the most interesting storyline) is not finished, and his physical relationship with an actress whose portrayal could help explain his complicated sexuality is missing completely. Even though the second half of the film is more about his inner demons and intimacy, it is just as interesting as the crime-oriented first half. Anyway, it is a respectable monument to a controversial personality and has indisputable educational value. (10/04/2013)

An unpleasant disappointment that Clint had in store for me. I refuse to accuse him of any old-age senility, but even his firm personal style is mired in a dramaturgically-muddled film that only knows what it wants when it touches on a more historically significant event with which Hoover was associated. The rest of the film - though I wasn't expecting some cheap tabloid controversy where he wants to look under the FBI director's skin - is languid and dull, like the old-man mask that underlines the deadness of the actors' performances, and is the perfect repellent to the audience's empathy. God knows why it's as much of a fail for me as Scorsese's Shutter Island was. (02/16/2012)

Eastwood’s idiosyncratic depiction of the life of one of the most powerful men of last century. Clear values and clear rules. Both Clint and Edgar stick to firmly traced course of the character development of a proper leading figure, just to get unstuck at the end. The acting performances are wonderful, mainly the could-be old age pensioner Armie Hammer excels and DiCaprio improves the quality of his acting even further. Certain stages in their lives could maybe have been developed better, I mean Dillinger only gets a couple of mentions, but this is a very decent picture. The scene in the Library of Congress library works particularly well. A perfect promotional video for catalog cards. Information is power. (02/16/2012)

Clint Eastwood's direction is, in my opinion, too old-fashioned and extremely slow. The ambient sound and minimalist set design are fine and bearable, but in my view, there was no place for directorial conservatism this time. The story of J. Edgar Hoover should have been gripping and controversial. What the director didn't achieve, he tries to make up for with one of the best performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, currently, one of the best and most complex actors in Hollywood. It's definitely not a complete disaster, and they chose very good material, but the execution is somewhere on the average and significantly lags behind in entertainment value and digestibility. On the other hand, it is sufficiently dramatic and very unconventional in terms of costumes and cold visual aesthetics. (08/18/2012)

Eastwood's J. Edgar reminds me of Spielberg's Lincoln in a lot of ways. Apart from the direction, which is polished to perfection mainly by the camera, its washed-out colors, the gloomy darkness (every intrusion of sharp daylight is unexpected and somehow inappropriate)... And above all the way the story of the main hero is told. Or is hero the right word? It is probably well known to all that the situation around Hoover was complicated. Still, I was surprised at how much of the controversial chapters of his life Eastwood was able to show without in any way justifying Hoover or making him out to be a saint. This is exactly the kind of documentary-style feature film I like. Fiction, discharged by Hoover himself, alternates between known facts so skillfully that you can't tell what is what, and it's up to you to make sense of this dramatic, but still very sensitive and at the same time poignant theatre. I have no complaints about the actors, Leonardo DiCaprio looked convincing even under the layer of retirement latex, while Armie Hammer's make-up artist didn't do that good of a realistic job, but I still bow down to them. (03/02/2013)