J. Edgar is a rather peculiar little film with big aspirations. It is filled with some great imagery, a wonderful stylistic choices by director Clint Eastwood, a stunning performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, a very well done love story, a solid screenplay… but it ultimately comes off as somewhat slight, rather boring and, frankly, kind of pointless.
The screenplay by Dustin Lance Black is both a strong point of the film and a source of many of the film's problems for me (if that makes any sense at all). The dialogue is quick and appropriate, telling the story wonderfully. The problem is that the film doesn't really give any information about J. Edgar Hoover I didn't already know, and it didn't delve into the why; why was Hoover so insecure, why did he do the things he did, why was he so obsessed? Beyond that, most of the action of the plot wasn't all that engaging to me, so there were times in the film where I felt bored. Though I must say that the love story between Hoover and his protege Clyde Tolson was handled very well, not once taking over the film or being 'over the top', if you will.
In all, J. Edgar is a film that could have been much better for me. I do highly recommend it if you like the whole biopic genre, as it's definitely worth a watch - the direction and lead performance see to that.
