A few scenes feature fist fights and shoot outs. And there's an infuriating final twist that sneakily preserves the movie's impartiality. November 16, 2011 @ 12:18 pm Aliminum Badger. As the face of law enforcement in … Naomi Watts co-stars as Hoover's personal secretary, Helen Gandy, who was privy to many of his secrets, especially his personal files that supposedly contained damning secrets about many of the country's most powerful people. Well-acted biopic tackles complex character; OK for teens. Insecure, aggressive, fragile, ambitious, and stunted, Hoover is a very complicated character -- and one who's very difficult to pull off. As the face of law enforcement in America for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and re..... .View more! “MLK/FBI,” directed by Sam Pollard, exposes FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s attempts to discredit and humiliate the Rev. for nearly 50 years, looks back on his professional and personal life. What to Watch, Read, and Play While Your Kids Are Stuck Indoors, Common Sense Selections for family entertainment, Check out new Common Sense Selections for games, Teachers: Find the best edtech tools for your classroom with in-depth expert reviews, Cómo hablar con los niños sobre la violencia en el Capitolio de los Estados Unidos, Actividades de bienestar para el invierno, Which Side of History? What a snorefest. One scene involves a surveillance audiotape that seems to have recorded the sounds of people having sex. Join now. MOVIE REVIEW: J.EDGAR. Wondering if J. Edgar is OK for your kids? The only reason why it received an R-rating is because they used the word c*cksucker twice. I was really, really excited to see this movie, my +1 to the pre-screening and I were talking about all the potential that J. Edgar Hoover presented for a movie. Suggest an update to this review. The movie went on for 2 and a half hours, and left me bored to tears. There is a weird, muffled neutrality to all this, a lot of pulled punches and fudged issues, as if screenwriter and director have made an uneasy alliance to create a Hoover they admire from different angles: the fictional love child of Harvey Milk and Dirty Harry. We display the minimum age for which content is developmentally appropriate. Directed by Clint Eastwood. But DiCaprio leaves nothing on the table; he's all in, and it's a gamble he wins. 'Movie Review: J. Edgar (2011)' have 6 comments. The website's critical consensus reads, "Leonardo DiCaprio gives a predictably powerhouse performance, but J. Edgar stumbles in all other departments: cheesy makeup, poor lighting, confusing narrative, and humdrum storytelling." J Edgar chronicles the public and private life of J Edgar Hoover, the man who founded the FBI and ran it for several decades. The star rating reflects overall quality. Become a member to write your own review. The final scenes are syrupy and faintly bizarre, like a gay Muppet opera about the leave-taking of Statler and Waldorf. Insecure, aggressive, fragile, ambitious, and stunted, Hoover is a very complicated character -- and one who's very difficult to … Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, gives the film a normalized scor… J. Edgar is moving and informative, but more often, it seems trapped between wanting to illuminate and wanting to be discreet. Rating: Beg or borrow, but do watch. What is crystal clear is that this Hoover is dominated by his mother, played by Judi Dench, and it is in relation to her that Eastwood and Black effectively acknowledge the scurrilous apocryphal anecdote about Hoover cross-dressing, though in respectfully rewritten form. Get Live J.Edgar Movie Reviews, Reactions & comments by our users, Movie Jockey and audience. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free. The first fifteen minutes of the movie proved my fears to be well founded, since the movie was really boring. Movie Review | 'J. Fascinating biopic, best for mature teens and up. “J. The movie went on for 2 and a half hours, and left me bored to tears. Parents need to know that this Clint Eastwood-directed biopic about longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is rated R primarily for a couple of brief but notable scenes of strong language (including "f--k"). Hoover devoted his life to the bureau, though his personal animosity toward minorities and radicals sometimes led to operations of dubious legality. Do you consider Hoover a role model? J. Edgar is a workmanlike production that should garner an Oscar nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio, but it's not a great motion picture or even an especially memorable one. Movie Review: “J. J. Edgar Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,If you really wanna know how power could actually drive … While the movie raises questions about Hoover's sexuality that it doesn't answer, there's no actual sex in it (though one scene features apparent recorded noises of an amorous couple). Tolson explodes with jealousy, rage and hurt. J Edgar - Review. Full Review | Original Score: B- Kelly Jane Torrance Washington Examiner A figure as divisive and compelling as J. Edgar Hoover demands a movie that provokes some kind of debate other than whether Leonardo DiCaprio will win an Oscar. Read J. Edgar reviews from parents on Common Sense Media. Another note: this movie doesn't deserve an R-rating. 15 cert, 136 min . Do you think his memories are accurate? And Watts, too, proves why she's one of the best actresses around. He's matched by Hammer, who demonstrates again that he's an actor who understands nuance and delivers it. But Eastwood and Black put at the centre of this film Hoover's quasi-homosexual, buttoned-up platonic relationship with his Bureau deputy, Clyde Tolson, played by Armie Hammer. J. Edgar explores the public and private life of one of the most powerful, controversial and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. Yes? DiCaprio has an odd habit of neurotically wiping his palms after shaking hands, a mannerism that looks left over from his performance as Howard Hughes. Whether he deserves it or not, De Caprio will get nominated for an Academy Award though. Get full reviews, ratings, and advice delivered weekly to your inbox. The message at the heart of J. Edgar is to be true to yourself, or every part of your life will be based on a false foundation. J Edgar has a typical Clint Eastwood theme – a man with his overbearing sense of self – and his political/psychological conflicts. How Technology Is Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives, Discover activities to get kids excited for a new year of possibilities from Wide Open School, Online Playdates, Game Nights, and Other Ways to Socialize at a Distance, Keeping Kids Motivated for Online Learning, Well-acted biopic is teen-friendly, but dull, Hoover's important, but conflicted, historical position, great teches about the history of j edgar hover, 5 Tips to Make Family Movie Night a Success. The movie does not quite reclaim Hoover for gay history, neither does it exactly claim a tragic status for Hoover's imprisonment in the closet, nor quite suggest that his tentacular empire was a symptom of sexual repression. Let me ask you something, did you enjoy reading History books on J. Edgar Hoover? If you chose to provide an email address, it will only be used to contact you about your comment. Movie review: “J. This film's echoes of Hitchcock's Psycho are striking, almost as if America is turning into a huge Bates motel with peepholes. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the chief, both as a young zealot in the cause of criminal-detection science, and as a crinkly oldster behind his desk, frowning, grimacing, taking his glasses on and off, barking cantankerous orders to his devoted secretary, and occasionally making brooding appearances on his Washington DC office balcony, to watch another presidential inaugural motorcade roll past. Directed by Clint Eastwood. The two men, and Gandy, periodically shuffle on for later-life appearances, prosthetically and somewhat exotically aged up. Yet with his plastic old-guy face on, this Hoover seems to me lacking in form and interest. As the face of … DiCaprio is most convincing when he shows J Edgar as a young man, with an almost obsessive interest in library systems of classification, his dark eyes lighting up with excitement at the thought of applying these systems to putting the entire population under surveillance. I'm not sure quite how solid it is. Infrequent swearing; when the words "c--ksucker" and "f--king" are heard (in two scenes), they stand out since the rest of the film is so lacking in profanity. J. Edgar movie reviews & Metacritic score: J. Edgar explores the public and private life of one of the most powerful, controversial and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. On vacation with Tolson (they enjoy going to the races together), he nervously confides that he is thinking of getting married to Dorothy Lamour, of all the outrageously obvious beards. J. Edgar – review. Her withering stares wither, indeed, and her pitying glances are painful. J. Edgar focuses on both Hoover's career and his personal life, especially the never-defined relationship with longtime companion Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). Well, so did I, and I … Recently, Hari Kunzru wrote about the approved products of culture that "taste of cardboard". J. EDGAR focuses on both Hoover's career and his personal life, especially his never-defined relationship with colleague/longtime companion Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). J. Edgar Movies: As he works on his memoirs at FBI headquarters, an aged J. Edgar Hoover (DiCaprio) explains how he went from fiercely ambitious law … The undefined nature of Hoover's relationship with his assistant makes the question of sex, and sexual identity, an important part of the film. There are interesting moments and interesting scenes here – but this J Edgar becomes a sonorous, History Channel drone. J. Edgar is a curious mix: It's slow, almost glacial, in parts, and then quickly, shockingly moving in others; it's cerebral, almost distant, and then emotionally raw. Skittishly overexcited at the job application from handsome young Clyde Tolson, he David Brent-ishly works out in his office, doing pressups. Edgar” Posted on December 29, 2012 by rogerinorlando Clint Eastwood’s “J. Photograph: Keith Bernstein. Clint Eastwood’s biopic of FBI chief J Edgar Hoover is under-lit and over-reverential. J. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the F.B.I. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench and Naomi Watts. But in J. Edgar, they're heartbreaking. Title: J. Edgar Director: Clint Eastwood Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer ('The Social Network'), Naomi Watts and Judi Dench Preserving your With Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Hamilton. Edgar” is a lumbering miscalculation, a slow and clumsy re-think of the late F.B.I. Do you think the film is asking a question that can never really be answered? Find the over all response of J.Edgar film! Edgar” is a serious movie designed to win some Oscars, rather than filling multiplexes full of entertainment-hungry masses. The truly sensational scene is also somehow one that still preserves the film's distance from Hoover's emotional life. See our. November 16, 2011 @ 1:15 pm greetbeet. Was Hoover a reliable narrator? I didn't really find the premise that interesting but had faith in Eastwood and DiCaprio. J. Edgar movie reviews & Metacritic score: J. Edgar explores the public and private life of one of the most powerful, controversial and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. What does the movie say about the motivations of people in a position of power? On a whole Eastwood stumbled with J Edgar. ... Clint Eastwood directs this ponderous biopic of the legendary J Edgar Hoover, autocratically in charge of the FBI from 1935 until his death in 1972. Parents: Set preferences and get age-appropriate recommendations with Common Sense Media Plus. Are they always noble? Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black takes on a mountain of a subject and mostly conquers it; he distills much of it manageably, if not always successfully. The drama happens largely in flashback as Hoover dictates his life story to a succession of submissive junior agents. Some social drinking, though Hoover was a teetotaler and actively discouraged people from drinking, on and off the job. Another note:... Hoover is portrayed as arrogant and somewhat bullying towards people he doesn't agree with or with whom he does not share common heritage. Young Hoover proposes marriage to the pretty typist Helen Gandy – another uninteresting role for Naomi Watts – and, on being gently rebuffed, appoints her instead his trusted assistant and keeper of the confidential files that were to make him feared throughout Washington. The audience for the film might be the kinds of people who went to see “ Frost/Nixon ” a few years ago—perhaps middle-aged men with a passion to learn more about what motivated historical figures like Hoover. Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. Did it deliver? It is by no means fact that Hoover and Tolson were lovers. But the abiding bond between Hoover and Tolson grounds much of this beautifully filmed history in emotion. On top of that, Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent, very professional. J. Edgar (2011) This is a particular kind of movie--the based on fact biopic--done with great attention to period accuracy. Here is no action man, but an administrator and super-nerd, with a intensely developed sense of professionalism and – something to appal Tea Party activists – an enthusiast for big government and federal empire, sweeping aside the rickety local police departments and putting in place a nationwide outfit of souped-up crimebusters, armed to the teeth. © Common Sense Media. By Robbie Collin 20 January 2012 • 08:00 am . Should it be? J. Edgar, 2011. There are some foggy reclarification processes at work in this movie, which refrains from simply denouncing Hoover's attitude to civil liberties, balancing this topic with Hoover's dynamic G-Man attacks on gangsters and terrorists, and with his proto-CSI innovations. Check out J.Edgar (2012) movie review, rating & box Office. If that's what's important, getting a bit of American history into a vivid big screen format, then this works pretty well. Also "for God's sake" as an exclamation. There is no doubt about how he feels – and yet even here, at the epicentre of this emotional meltdown, Eastwood preserves the glimmer of a possibility that Hoover, though the recipient of homosexual love, is himself merely asexual, confused, with sentimental, brotherly feelings. Working from a screenplay by Dustin Lance Black, Clint Eastwood directs this ponderous biopic of the legendary J Edgar Hoover, autocratically in charge of the FBI from 1935 until his death in 1972. The Lindbergh case takes up a chunk of the storyline -- perhaps too much. This much, though, isn't up for debate: DiCaprio's masterful performance. Clint Eastwood's biopic of J Edgar Hoover never gets to grips with the FBI founder's sexuality, or his impact on American life, Confused … Leonardo DiCaprio as J Edgar Hoover. Excellent portrayal of extraordinary musician. Movie Reviews TV Reviews Roundtables Podcasts THR Presents. 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