When I was home for fall break, I went to see the new film The Ides of March.  I had heard great things about the movie which is based on Farragut North, a play written by a former staff member of the Howard Dean presidential campaign.  It certainly did not disappoint. . . .

But something managed to distract me from Ryan Gosling's beautiful face. . .

        I've seen Ryan Gosling in a few of his recent films, and he was as good as ever in this film (despite his strange accent).  George Clooney, meanwhile, gave what felt like a deftly understated performance, and Phillip Seymore Hoffman and Paul Giamatti both were effortlessly excellent, per their usual.  The technical aspects of the film were equally good, particularly the score and focused intensity of the cinematography, both adding to the tension and suspense of the scenes.

        All that being said, I was troubled by the portrayal of women in the political drama that unfolded.  The male-heavy cast featured only two prominent women, Morissa Tomei's ruthless journalist and Evan Rachel Wood's young campaign intern.  Though I would like to think that these were both characters written with human flaws matching those of their male counterparts, their lack of redemption and--most problematically--the apparent efforts made to inflect the audience's sympathy for them (specifically Wood's character) with a sense that they deserved what they got, seemed at best unfair and at worst markedly sexist.  I could go on at length with my badly articulated opinions on the subject, but why don't I just leave this article, which lays everything out quite nicely, and leave it at that. (Note: I do disagree with the writer on one point--The Social Network is not a comparable example of a sexist film. In my opinion, though it lacked female characters, it portrayed the few it had as strong women cast in a flattering light.)