George Clooney: actor, director, humanitarian, perpetual playboy...and now, apparently, a screenplay writer as well. Kudos to him for gathering around himself such actors as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and, yeah, yeah, Ryan Gosling (one of two actors that we have been overly exposed to this year, the other being Olivia Wilde).Knowing my dislike for Gosling, I was surprise to discover that I did not find it hard to watch him in this one and could, in all honesty, say that he was excellent, overshadowing Clooney as the script itself intended to. His pairing up with Evan Rachel Wood (despite her prior, questionable roles) proved to be satisfactory even though neither of the characters is quite likeable but, despite your initial hesitation, you kind of end up rooting for Ryan.
The script offers nothing new, the same old political stories of politicians who are, if not corrupt, then philandering and, by default, lying sons of bitches. So, even though there was no huge breakthrough here, it was enjoyable to watch and ran its course quicker than most movies do.
The ending seemed a bit hasty, for my taste, but what the hell, Clooney's no Scorsese.
7 out of 10.
