J. Edgar (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
	Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic), Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Lone Ranger), Naomi Watts (King Kong), Judi Dench (Skyfall)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.05.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In the 1920's the young J. Edgar Hoover raises in the American Bureau of Investigation. His skills and determination will bring him to the head of the FBI that he helped creating.
Review: The story of the most powerful man in the world who remained at the head of the FBI for fifty years and collected information on friends and foes alike so that nobody could ever challenge him. The movie switches between two periods in his life: what is shown as the "present" i.e. the few last months before his death, and flashbacks on his first 10 years in the Bureau narrated by himself as he is addressing his biographer. This makes the movie more interesting than if it were a linear story of his whole life. As in all recent Clint Eastwood movies, it is hard to reproach anything to the form: it is simply good-looking and seriously made and the actors are good. Above the others DiCaprio gives his best performance ever, especially when playing the 70 years-old Hoover. I now understand the small wave of indignation that shook Hollywood when he was not even nominated that year for the Academy Awards. Come on, even Jean Dujardin was on the list!! DiCaprio is helped by a particularly realistic make-up. Such make-up is always extremely difficult to realize as you can notice from any movies who attempted it even in very recent years, and also from the secondary characters in J. Edgar (Hammer, Watts) that don't look as good as the main one when aging. Once passed the form, the content of the movie is also very actual nowadays between the NSA and other surveillance scandals worldwide. It looks like Hoover started it all! From what I read after watching the movie, it seems like many facts that are presented are actually not confirmed (his files on this and that person, his sexuality, the relationship with his mother...) but sum up to a plausible version of the truth. Finally, I can't say that I was fascinated by that 100% American topic (in "the most powerful man in the World", the World actually means the USA), but for the reasons mentioned above I cannot rate it any lower.
Rating: 7 /10