Beginning in the 1960s, the film sees J. Edgar Hoover dictating his memoirs to a young agent. Through flashbacks and voiceover we’re taken to 1919 when Hoover is working at the Department of Justice. Bolshevik bombings are taking place and Hoover vows to stamp out the communist threat within the country.
His enthusiasm is rewarded with promotion when the Bureau of Investigation is formed. He’s soon stomping around, firing agents he doesn’t like the look of. If you won’t shave off your moustache, you’re a goner. Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man who tries to woo his secretary (Naomi Watts) by showing her his card cataloguing system. Straight-laced doesn’t really cover it, but DiCaprio manages to avoid making Hoover seem ridiculous.
J. Edgar starts reasonably well with the excitement of raids and bombings and chasing bank robbers, but it quickly grinds to a halt, pace-wise. Hoover was involved in some of the most interesting and important events of 20th century American history but they come across as rather dull and commonplace.
Flicking back and forth between the 1920s, the 1930s and various stages of the 1960s, we see Hoover changing the law on federal crimes, pioneering the use of scientific investigation in police work, trying to solve the Lindbergh kidnapping case, uncovering the lesbian affair of Eleanor Roosevelt and wire-tapping the Kennedys and Martin Luther King.
The last three scenarios should be full of tension but they’re not expanded on enough to produce anything meaningful. A whiff of intrigue and Eastwood whisks us away somewhere else. These moments are oddly cut off, like the curt phone calls everyone seems to make. ‘The president’s dead,’ Hoover tells JFK’s brother before summarily dropping the receiver back onto the handset. Hello and goodbye seemed to be as frowned upon at the Bureau as facial hair.
Running at two hours and twenty minutes, I wonder what I actually watched in J. Edgar. That’s plenty of time to explore the interesting bits, but instead it’s all just a series of snippets leaving more questions than answers. Why did Hoover stammer? Was he gay? Was he a cross-dresser? How did he know Ginger Rogers? Was his mother keeping his senile father in the basement?
We never find out what Hoover and the Bureau were doing during the Second World War and the 1950s. McCarthy is briefly mentioned, dismissed by Hoover as an ‘opportunist, not a patriot’. This could have led to an examination of Hoover’s own fear of America being infiltrated by reds under the bed, but that is skimmed over as well.
J. Edgar is very much DiCaprio’s film and he puts in a solid performance as Hoover. But the rest of the cast are underused, particularly Watts as Helen Gandy. She spends most of the film opening and closing doors and looking at bits of paper. When she does get her moment of glory, it’s a scene of her shredding Hoover’s secret files.
Hoover’s relationship with his mother gets some decent screen time and goes a little way to explaining his personality. Mrs Hoover is an intriguing character, what with the possible subterranean spousal incarceration, and Judi Dench plays her superbly. Her scenes with DiCaprio are compelling.
Armie Hammer lends some decent support as Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s right hand man and, possibly, his lover. His performance, however, is tarnished later in the film by the unfortunate prosthetics used to age him. He looks like he has a damp naan bread stuck to his face, which is oddly incoherent as DiCaprio and Watts’ make-up is excellent. Hammer also should have taken tips from Meryl Streep on how to physically portray a frail and elderly person. He isn’t quite convincing as the aged Tolson.
The Academy Awards nominations are announced this coming Tuesday and I wouldn’t be surprised if DiCaprio’s name was on the best actor list. His performance holds J. Edgar together. I doubt it will garner any more nominations though. J. Edgar, like so many other political films, is an opportunity missed.
J. Edgar Official Trailer
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Posted on January 22, 2012
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