- Location: UA Denver Pavilions 15
- Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar serves as a useful illustration of the difference between an interesting life and an interesting story. Nobody would deny that the life of J. Edgar Hoover must have contained some very memorable moments. After all, this was a man who investigated the Lindbergh kidnapping, declared war on Prohibition-era gangsters, and collected evidence of marital infidelity concerning such political luminaries as Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. His influence showed up on products as diverse as cereal boxes and James Cagney films. There were also those strange rumors surrounding Hoover's own sexuality and possible cross-dressing proclivities. Such an fascinating character should automatically generate a compelling biopic, right? Not necessarily.
- The fault lies not with film's actors. Leonardo DiCaprio is perfectly fine as Hoover at a multitude of makeup-assisted ages. Judy Dench is an odd choice for Hoover's surprisingly influential mother, but she obviously has the acting chops to pull it off. Naomi Watts, too, is a good enough actress for any role, turning in an excellent performance as Hoover's lifelong secretary, Helen Gandy. In fact, Watts and DiCaprio deliver the film's best scene rather early on, when the fledgling justice department employee proudly shows Miss Gandy the method he invented for organizing books at the Library of Congress. In these wonderful few minutes, we learn that theirs will be a relationship based solely on a love of organizational techniques, which is just as well since Hoover obviously knows exactly nothing about women. Which brings us to the character of Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer).
- Everybody agrees that Hoover and Tolson were lifelong friends who occupied the two most powerful positions in the FBI. They had lunch and dinner together every day, and even took shared vacations. Both men also remained unmarried for the entirety of their lives. The film directly implies that Tolson was in love with Hoover, but further suggests that Hoover's feelings were more complicated. My opinion after watching is that Hoover was probably also in love with Tolson, but that he was so terrified of his sexuality, especially in light of his mother's "daffodil" speech, that the thought of consummation would have given him a heart attack. This was, after all, a man who spent his entire life keeping secrets, including those of his insane father and childhood stutter, not to mention the myriad revelations surely contained in his "secret files." For a man like that, feelings were uninvited forces that you channeled into a dogged devotion to your work.
- So with all of these interesting events and fascinating people, where do things go wrong? Well, most of the trouble comes from the way in which the story is presented. For a biopic about one of history's great collectors and collators of information, the film is a disorganized mess, jumping seemingly at random between past and present (what, did Hoover sleep through WWII?). Furthermore, while the makeup department is up to the task of advancing DiCaprio and Watts into their sixties, the boyish Hammer needs so much work that his older version of Tolson ends up bearing an unfortunate resemblance to a certain Boris Karloff role. Worse still is the film's perhaps obligatory cross-dressing scene that, despite its intense gravity, accidentally reminds one of the careers of Jamie Farr or Milton Berle. Given the film's interesting suggestion that Hoover has not been a particularly reliable narrator, I'll choose to disbelieve that scene first. Anyway, it's a real shame that this beautifully lit version of the 1930's created by Eastwood and cinematographer Tom Stern gets wasted on an otherwise mediocre story of what must have been an interesting life.
- In a completely weird meta-item, J. Edgar Hoover had Armie Hammer's great-grandfather (the famous Armand Hammer) investigated for his ties to the Soviet Union.
- The film shows footage from both The Public Enemy and G-Men.
- Many bit parts, including Christopher Shyer as Nixon, Lea Thompson as Ginger Rogers' mother, Jeffrey Donovan as Bobby Kennedy, and Stephen Root as a wood expert.
