Written by Frances Lee, staff writer for The Smart Show.
In efforts to save money I’ve had a few nights in this week and my movie qeue has been my best friend. I caught up with flicks I missed in the theatre for whatever reason, and the first on my list was J. Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by the legendary Clint Eastwood.
I was so surprised and distraught (as I’m sure the rest of the entertainment community was) that this film wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar, even for Hair and Makeup which was amazing. The movie was full of flashbacks so the characters were in prosthetics half the time, and these characters really looked freaken old!
The first thing I thought was how the characters were all so complex, each having both good and bad battling within them. Even the secretary, played by the beautiful Naomi Watts, had good intent but ultimately allowed a crazy person tap the White House and have everyone’s mail and memo’s recorded.
The only reason I feel people would disapprove of this movie is because there were such deeply rooted and deeply implied homosexuality within one of America’s most masculine departments. Maybe conservatives squirmed in their little seats because they felt a chill of reality seeing two white men show affection on the big screen. Maybe the thought of America’s representatives that we honor each day by following protocol that he invented, could be everything they stood against.
But who knows? Maybe I’m way wrong and this whole Oscar snub was really a terrible mistake.
Regardless, it was a great movie and full of Eastwood’s famous dramatic lighting and spot-on acting. If you remember Harrison’s interview with Eastwood on the red carpet premier in the beginning of the summer.
Tonight I’ll put away my DVR controller and play around on my new Kindle! I downloaded The Rum Diary because the movie adaptation is in my queu ready to be watched!