Most reviewers seemed divided over Clint Eastwood’s 2011 biopic J. Edgar, with most agreeing that the performances were strong but the movie itself was lacking in luster, so to speak. It almost seems as though Eastwood himself has to be featured in his movies in order to give them a subjective, sympathetic disposition rather than remaining cold and observational, which works in some instances, but perhaps not so much in a close character portrayal as we see with J. Edgar Hoover. I preface with this disclaimer because a performance is so dependent on a director’s ultimate handling of it that it’s almost entirely unfair to blame an actor for a poor performance in a movie like this one.
The relationship between Leo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer’s characters in the film felt flat for the majority of the time, which based at least on DiCaprio’s record doesn’t seem to implicate the work of the performers so much as the general shortcoming of the film itself. So I don’t feel like writing off Hammer entirely. Still, while Leo showed signs of rising above the material on occasion, Hammer’s albeit daring work as Clyde Tolson never really broke through, remaining stagey and ineffectual. There are plenty of critics who disagree on this, but for me it was at best a sophomore’s slump.
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