J. Edgar: The Most Powerful Man in the World

It’s been a while since I have written a movie review… heck; it’s been a while since I have watched a movie! I guess vacation is a great time to get back into the swing of things. We are going to watch a movie later tonight! (They want to see The Muppets, but I think I am going to see Jack & Jill.) Anyway, the other night we went to see J. Edgar. Until we were on our way to the theater, I thought he was a president. I had no idea that he was the person who started the FBI… I wasn’t the only one, because everyone with us thought the same thing. Sheryl was the only one who knew better.

Going in, I hadn’t seen the trailer, had no idea what it was about (I assumed the FBI) and didn’t even know who was in it. I was in for a surprise.

The film was directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Dustin Lance Black, and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, and Naomi Watts. The cast was stellar, but I am not a huge fan of what Eastwood pumps out. I really hate it when he directs and stars in the same film. But I didn’t even know he was associated with this picture until it was over.

J. Edgar didn’t really have a plot. It would be best described as a documentary. It was pretty much the story of J. Edgar Hoover. The one thing I did like was how they told the story. It was told as Edgar (that’s what his friends called him in the movie) was dictating his manuscript. The story went back and forth in time, and I liked how they made the actors look young and old depending on where they were in his story. It’s a unique take on it, and had the movie not been so long, I could see that being more effective.

ACTION! Oh wait…

The movie didn’t have much action. There was a scene in the beginning of the film where a bomb went off… that made me jump a little. But that was about it. It was a lot of banter with the characters, and a lot of detail on who J. Edgar was as a person. They did focus on some of the things that he was famous for. For instance, I had no idea he was the one who came up with the Dewey Decimal System. (Wikipedia gives the credit to someone else, but the movie makes it seem as if he was the one who invented that system.)

Hoover is also responsible for fingerprinting… it was actually pretty funny, as when they were going over this in the movie people were mocking him, making fun of this concept. That concept is used today, and has managed to put justice to endless crimes. Not such a bad idea after all! It was just neat to see all of these things that he was responsible for. That… and the Federal Bureau of Investigation! That’s a pretty big deal, if I do say so myself!

Oh so BORING!

The movie was really long, and VERY boring. I am pretty sure my favorite cousin Chris fell asleep during the movie. It was too long, there was not enough action, and it just seemed like the movie dragged on and on. Every time that I thought it would be over, and the story came to a potential closing point it just started back up again. It did that four or five times. I kept waiting, when all of a sudden it was over. I knew it was getting close when Edgar died.

It wasn’t a bad movie. The acting was great, and the makeup was incredible. But it was just too long. I wanted more… more of a story, and more development. There are some things Hoover is known for (that I learned after seeing the movie) like his potential homosexuality and his cross-dressing habits. That was touched on in the movie, but never focused on. Those are the things I now want to learn more about.

If you are a history buff, go see the movie. You will like it… especially if you are into the FBI and the likes of J. Edgar Hoover. Leo did a GREAT job with this, and I am sure he will win an award or two for his work here. It’s not his best work, but after Titanic his career has just gone downhill! (No, really… I loved that movie. Did you know they are bringing that movie back in 3D? Yeah… I know. Dumb!)

Since I rate this movie in terms of popcorn kernels, I have to give this a 2/5. The acting is good, like I said, but there isn’t enough there to keep me entertained for more than a few minutes. If you want to see this, I would suggest saving your money and waiting until it’s on DVD. It’s not a blockbuster like Immortals or Twilight. (For the record, I have not seen the new Twilight. I have no plans on seeing it, either.)

Did you see J. Edgar? What did you think?