George Clooney deserves credit for directing another film that is smart and classy without reducing its melodrama into fights and gun battles, as so many modern movies do.  The Ides of March, based upon Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North,” is a crackling character study of what political players will do and say to get their guys and gals elected in this modern age.  The film is layered and nuanced around the issues of trust, betrayal and truth, with truth, as always, getting the short shrift in political gamesmanship.

Clooney makes a terrific Presidential contender, handsome, solid and as seemingly honest as can be.  Backing him are hard-working and clever Philip Seymour Hoffman and media-wise Ryan Gosling.  It is Gosling’s character that is the center of this melodrama, courted by the other contender’s power broker (Paul Giamatti) and gradually involved with a campaign intern (Evan Rachel Wood).  As Gosling finds himself suddenly adrift in shark-filled political waters, trying to do the right thing but betrayed by the very people he is trying to protect, his survival instincts take over.

Really, this is a coming-of-age drama for the Gosling character, who, despite all of his experience, has never quite grown up.  By the end of the story, that has changed. His final exchange with reporter Marisa Tomei indicates that he has finally learned how to play the game.

Clooney’s film could have been deeper and more effective.  We never learn just why Clooney feels Jeffrey Wright’s power-hungry Senator is such a bad guy — knowing that would intensify the plight candidate Clooney finds himself in, needing Wright’s delegates.  The fate of Evan Rachel Wood’s character is also not handled as adroitly as it could have been; this is one moment that feels stage-bound rather than realistic.  And it would have been nice to see and hear perspectives on candidate Clooney other than that of Gosling and Hoffman.  It’s rather one-sided in that respect.

But overall this is an enervating, intelligent political power play.  The acting is very good, if not superlative, and as its drama ramps up it is all very convincing.  Its take on modern politics seems absolutely on target — which is daunting for viewers like myself who despair for the democratic process.  Money and power once again rule everything, burying worthwhile causes and issues beneath the always imperative need to obtain the power and then hang onto it.  In other words, this is a good film, but it’s pretty depressing, too.  ✰ ✰ ✰.  14 Oct. 2011.