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Warner Bros.
Leonardo DiCaprio portrays J. Edgar Hoover from his 20s to his 70s in "J Edgar."
Start with the question everyone asks: Yes, at one point in "J. Edgar," Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover does put on a dress.
But it's hardly the flamboyant cross-dressing swashbuckle you may have expected. Here he's mourning the death of his controlling mother (scarily played by Judi Dench, so good in everything) and dons her beads and dress in some misguided way to pull her close once again. The understated scene isn't really surprising, but it feels a little like director Clint Eastwood threw it in as a sap to viewers who may know little more about Hoover and expect to see the rumor addressed.
Indeed, it's hard to walk into "J. Edgar" without expectations. Hoover's life is fascinating, juicy stuff and Eastwood and DiCaprio are A-list Hollywooders. If anyone can tackle this topic, they can. Yet there's more than one movie roiling under the surface here, and sometimes you wish Eastwood and DiCaprio would just pick one and run with it. "Hoover and the Lindbergh Baby," perhaps, or "Hoover and His Secret Files." The film throws in all those wannabe films and underlies them all with "Hoover Is Probably Gay But Will Stay In The Closet Until Someone Rips The Doors Off."
DiCaprio, 36, portrays Hoover from age 24 to his death at age 77, bobbing and weaving through decades and major events in the director's life. The excuse for doing so is Hoover dictating his memoirs to various handsome young agents. But the shifts can be jumpy, and returning to the room with another new typist slows things down.
The audience gets the feeling early on that not everything Hoover is dictating is the way events actually happened, but there's no doubt it's the way he sees it. DiCaprio plays him as a man who's supremely confident in his job, but a mother-dominated possibly closeted gay man at home. Armie Hammer plays Clyde Tolson, Hoover's longtime co-worker and possible lover, and isn't it about time Hammer gets his own lead role in a movie? He's excellent here, although the old-man makeup he's slathered with for half the film is more Halloween masky than realistic. (DiCaprio's makeup job is better, but Hammer resembles a burn victim.)
The history may be touch-and-go, but DiCaprio's Hoover is well-played. His supreme confidence on the job is completely absent in his social life. In an early scene, stuttering Hoover takes co-worker Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts, understated but strong) to the Library of Congress on a date. It's not exactly "Taxi Driver's" Travis Bickle taking his date to a sex film, but it's almost as awkward.
In the context of Hoover's personality, though, it makes sense — he's more comfortable showing off how quickly he can find a book from the card catalog than he is dancing or flirting. Throughout the entire film, he never gains that social confidence, and it helps explain why he's so desperate to keep the upper hand, threatening presidents and other leaders with the reveal of their secrets.
Here's hoping no high-school students try and use "J. Edgar" to write a history paper on the man, because they'll get a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and their teachers will be wearing out their red pens urging them to outline their material. But it's still a thoughtful and intriguing offering from two of the most talented men working in film today.
Do you have any interest in seeing "J. Edgar"? What do you think of the casting of DiCaprio in the role? Tell us in the comments.
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Since I'm old enough to remember J. Edgar Hoover, I have a hard time imagining Leo in the lead. J.Edgar was a monster in the making who formed a dark storm cloud over democracy that hovers to this day. He would have been thrilled with the Patriot Act, renditions, torture and probably would have created firing squads for U.S. citizens who protested a loss of rights. If Dick Cheney is Darth Vader, then J.Edgar is an incomparable Father that makes Cheney look like old saint Nick. I have some serious and still unresolved grievances about this Monster of the Beltway and find it hard to believe that Eastwood could make a film about him without its resembling Dante's Inferno.
I have always been greatly impressed by Eastwood's film career, if not his politics. So, it is not surprising that he hopscotches over Hoover's life skillfully, but doesn't truly investigate certain aspects in depth. He was able to show both sides in his two films about Iwo Jima. I hope he decides (as your reviewer suggests) to explore the later lives of Hoover/Tolson in a more probing manner. Eastwood, the man (and the talent), is well loved in the industry, despite his proclivity for fathering children with various women. Why not come "really" clean about Hoover's proclivities?
And it will make (te movie) a tin of money while being entertaining. Two of Hollywoods best individuals. This review is worthless.
Hoover was a right-wing monster, no doubt the product of his repressed homosexuality, which afflicts so many of the most fanatical right-wingers. The greater the fanaticism, the more likely the fairy. So don't expect that to be truthfully explored by Republican Eastwood.
Hoover, along with the BUSHES are the WORST Crooks in American History and their "leadership" has deterimentally Affected millions upon millions of Lives all over this Planet! They are monsters to be buried, but remember so WE KNOW TO STAND UP TO CROOKS IN BED WITH THE MAFIA!!!
Wow, Blueburner, Roberta K: Can you say "hyperbole?"
Clint knows how to make a good movie.
Before this movie is released I have problems with it and I personally think it will bomb or it should.
Clint has come with and did write and direct movies but He himself should have played Hoover himself
. I have always that that Leonerd Di Carpi o is a over rated actor but he with his age would even know the rumors of this monster in a suit. Hover did a lot of damage to justice in this Country and would Pry into anyone s life even if it broke the law.
Hover was a menace and if you where on his " Hit List " you where in trouble and he personally would keep outside people trying to became citizens. A good example was Hoover would not allow John Lennon citizenship among others.
Come on... Clint could not play that faggoty Hoover dude...
I might agree or disagree with your comments. I really can't tell and suggest you return to school and take some grammar lessons, if they even teach those anymore. Love Lennon's music, but maybe ed just didn't think we needed another heroin addict in the country, eh?
Okay, I got this far down the comments section and needed to say this. The movie isn't a documentary. It is designed to make money not teach anyone anything significant about Hoover. How the hell could you put 50 plus years of a mans life in a two hour movie?
Stop putting a right wing spin on this. There is no political agenda here so stop creating one. Everyone is so politically brainwashed in this country they are blind to what it is to be human.
Take the positive in this movie, maybe it will increase curiosity and people will do a little research on Hoover and learn what really happened. You know that if this movie is a success at the box office level The History and Discovery channels will be pulling everything out of the vault so all you realists can calm down now.
Just like a typical politician, we all have a way things could be done better but we don't take charge and make it happen. It's our permanent B&M society.
See you at the movies.
Hoover was truly a monster, and Dick Cheney is probably his spawn... yeah all sounds about right... Hope the movie is entertaining and does not leave people thinking Edgar was a nice guy...
I think it would be well worth the time to see this movie. Hoover was an interesting, complex man. Yes, he was a little heavy handed in his career- but there are always well known and high profile people with some kind of issue that eventually is revealed. We could all name a few, the Kennedys come to mind. ...... I have a lot of respect for Eastwood- he can tell it like it is- as in the movie Letters from Iwo Jima- and I think he stays to the historical facts. Dicaprio is a convincing and maturing actor. He has come a long way.
DiCaprio will do fine in the part. He always looks like he smells something in the air anyway!
Yeah, it's frustrating...that Leo DiCaprio was cast for this roll. What was Clint thinking? I don't think Leo will ever age enough to look convincing in a mature role. Forever baby faced.
If Hoover had spent as much time on civil rights for all americans instead of running down "communists", the nation would be far better off.
It's a frigging movie people.. Move on.
If you don't like it don't watch it. Shudddup and let people enjoy the damn thing.
If you know how to make a better one, do it and "they will come."
Wimpy critics with nothing to add.
There is absolutely zero solid proof that Hoover was either gay or a cross-dresser. While he had his good points (creating the FBI and pioneering modern scientific use of forensics) and his bad (protecting organized crime, going overboard on chasing Commies--who were, let's be fair, perceived by many at the time to be a grave threat-- and tormenting his enemies), it's unfortunate that he'll be most known from now on as he is portrayed in this film--a man whose life was ravaged because society (and his mother) prevented him from embracing his true (ie, homosexual) self.
Of which, as I mentioned, there is no proof.
I do plan on seeing this movie. I have no problems with DiCaprio playing the part of Hoover; I don't believe he has received his "props" as an actor. It would however, have been really interesting to see what my #1 all time favorite actor would have done in the same roll, Al Pacino.
Every movie that Clint Eastwood produces/directs/acts in, I go to see. His frame of reference is unique, temperate and I'm somehow wiser for it. So, Hoover, huh? I remember him from the 1960s when he scowled at men who spoke for change and at movements demanding justice. Maybe I'll gain some understanding of the person who held onto power too long. I hope so. At least I know that the characters in the movie will be multidimensional, the "look" will be amazingly right for the various periods of his life, and there will be scenes shot in places few people other than an Eastwood would have access to. ..... Hoover who? I love Clint Eastwood.
Hoover used FBI resources to ensure that he would never lose his position -- he had the dirt on everyone. I remember attorney Mark Lane saying, (in a speech about the Kennedy assignation), that Hoover regarded every newly-elected president, "as a transient, moving through his (Hoover's) administration."
Lane later died in the Jim Jones debacle in Guiana -- (not suggesting a connection -- just mentioning it).