Bobby Kaltenbach
News Editor
On the surface, Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar may seem like an ordinary biopic. Most of the staples of the genre — the crucial, tumultuous family life that serves to explain the subject’s behavior, the arc of the subject’s rise and decline, and the one steady love interest that acts as the stabilizing influence over the long term — are present. But don’t be fooled, J. Edgar is not a simple re-hatching of movies like Walk the Line or The Aviator. Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the title character, offer a series of innovations in style, plot and performance that, while not always effective, at least keep the movie interesting throughout its two hour plus run-time.
The movie takes place between 1919 and 1972 and covers the life of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, whose long tenure and secretive methods of attaining information made him one of America’s most controversial public figures. The story is not told linearly, and Eastwood jumps indiscriminately between decades, paying special attention to Hoover’s first years as FBI Director, his investigation of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby, and the time immediately preceding his death as he dictates his life story to a young agent given the task of compiling an official biography. While the shifting timeline can be disorienting, it generally works and serves as a welcome contrast to the structure of the traditional biopic.
J. Edgar is also interesting because of the frank way with which it deals with Hoover’s personal life. The movie does not shy away from dealing with Hoover’s probable homosexuality and relationship with assistant Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), but is careful to do so in a well-researched and respectable way. Nothing shown about the relationship seems to be unsubstantiated, and the film pays no credence to some of the more outlandish rumors about Hoover’s private life, including rumors of habitual cross-dressing.
According to Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times, Hoover was “so uncharismatic that it's possible to miss the brilliance of Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in J. Edgar.” Ultimately, the film hinges on DiCaprio, and his scenes with Armie Hammer are when the movie flows the best. He is almost certain to garner an Oscar nomination, and his performance here arguably surpasses his performance as Howard Hughes in The Aviator.
Though J. Edgar may not live up to the hype that an Eastwood/DiCaprio collaboration bring, it is an interesting character study and offers some illuminating insights into the life of a man who was viewed by some as the second most powerful person in America. Seeing J. Edgar is an informative and engrossing way to spend a free night.
