with the exception of his own mother—and his life-long affection for Clyde Tolson, the man with whom Hoover lived for all his life—a relationship that Eastwood handles with a restrained dignity and understanding, bestowing upon this film a remarkable insight and touching grace—qualities, quite frankly, that I was not expecting when considering seeing a movie about J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been repeatedly chosen to play characters with complex psychological depths, such as Howard Hughes (The Aviator -2004) and French poet Arthur Rimbaud (Total Eclipse -1995), and DiCaprio gives every impression of harboring enough complexities of his own to give these roles the gravitas they deserve. His face, and his entire demeanor, project the severity of the roles into which he enters, so much so that I hope he will soon opt for a comedy, to lighten up somewhat—for his own sake.
But his was certainly not the only portrayal which makes J. Edgar a major film of 2011. Armie Hammer was given the task of filling the role of Clyde Tolson, a young man seeking to be an FBI agent, who enters Hoover's office, and life, with such unassuming and captivating beauty and refined bearing, that it forever changed the life of both men.
The two major female leads in this film are Judi Dench, who plays Hoover's mother with her dependable understated perfection—and Naomi Watts, as Hoover's life-long personal secretary, Helen Gandy, who was loyal to the end, and kept all of J. Edgar Hoover's secrets.
And to the everlasting credit of Clint Eastwood, and screenplay writer Dustin Lance Black, this aspect of Hoover's private life is neither sensationalized—nor made lewd. Quite to the contrary, it is presented as a love between two men who very much needed each other, and simply left at that. I have nothing but praise for the manner with which this relationship was dealt, and the tender approach that Eastwood and Black took to telling this story.
And the final touch of Clint Eastwood's poignantly subtle music score has made this movie an instant favorite of mine, and, without hesitation in stating so, it is the best motion picture I have seen this year.
-- Thomas Ormsby
