Was Hoover Mr Clean?
5:49pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Your Say
Was Hoover Mr Clean?
by Stephen Webb
J EDGAR (15)
Starring: Leonard DiCaprio, Judi Dench, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer
Director: Clint Eastwood
HIS is one of the most famous names in 20th century history – yet J Edgar Hoover remains an enigma to many.
He is known for having established the FBI, for being an enemy of anything “un-American”, and for compiling dossiers which contained potentially damaging information on anyone from film stars to presidents of the United States.
He was also - allegedly - homosexual, something more than hinted at in Clint Eastwood’s movie J Edgar, and something that has not gone down well with a number of people at the FBI.
Eastwood attempts to clear up/explain/expose some of mysteries about one of the most powerful and influential movers in American political history, but we still come away wondering if we have really understood the man. And if we really care.
As with many films of this type (The Iron Lady being a recent example) this is a story of separate episides told in flashback. So we have an elderly Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) looking back on a long and incident filled life, from his early days of law enforcement, when his zeal was largely fuelled by his own paranoia, and as witness to actual events - be it terrorism or organised crime - which shaped his personality and his working methods.
There is consideration of the women in his life - his domineering mother Anna Marie Hoover (Judi Dench), and his erstwhile girlfriend and long-time personal assistant Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) - and of one particular man: colleague, confidante, friend (lover?) Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), whose devotion to Hoover over many years is made clear, and there are hints that the two men may have shared something more than companionship.
Incidents throughout his career are touched on, including headline-making arrests of internationally famous gangsters, as well as brushes with the most powerful people in the land - let’s just say Hoover and the brothers Kennedy were probably not at the top of each others’ Christmas card lists.
What emerges from all this is a study of a man driven by what he considers a duty to his country, and by the high standards he set himself, standards which he also expects those who work for him to follow - woe betide any agent whose suit doesn’t meet Hoover’s approval; and they sported a moustache at their peril.
And yet Hoover is depicted as a man with a considerable ego, whose diffidence would appear at odds with a liking for the limelight and the company of famous people.
The strength of the film is DiCaprio’s performance, who carries it from start to finish and immerses himself completely in the character, and is convincing in taking him from a fresh-faced legal eagle to an old man conscious of the power he still wields. In a less competitive year DiCaprio would be a shoe-in for the Best Actor Oscar.
Dench and Watts provide solid support, but sadly this is not one of Eastwood’s best films as director.
J Edgar is a workmanlike effort that covers all the bases - the film tells us a lot about Hoover, but also doesn’t reveal enough. Eastwood has given us a strip-tease of a movie - it’s a tantalising glimpse of something dark and secretive, but stops short of the big reveal. The result is we feel short-changed, leaving the cinema with a shrug and asking “So what?”
6/10
