Review: J. Edgar

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J Edgar Hoover

Justice is incidental to law and order. -- J. Edgar Hoover

There are few more controversial figures in American history than J. Edgar Hoover. The longtime FBI director (he served from 1924 to 1972) was credited with building the bureau into a modern and successful crime-fighting agency. But he is probably better remembered for abusing his power by harassing political dissenters, collecting evidence using illegal methods, and amassing secret files on politicians and activists. Hoover's private life was no less intriguing; thanks to widespread rumors of his closeted homosexuality and penchant for cross-dressing, he remains a larger-than-life figure decades after his death.

It's little surprise, then, that the enigmatic Hoover has been portrayed in many movies. But few if any cinematic depictions of Hoover can match Leonardo DiCaprio's stellar performance in J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood's equally stellar new biopic of America's most famous G-man. The film is everything you would expect in an Eastwood-DiCaprio collaboration, an artful study of Hoover's public and private lives.

J. Edgar tells Hoover's story mostly in flashback, opening late in his career in 1963 as he dictates a memoir to young FBI agents charged with the rather thankless task of writing a fawning book about their mercurial boss. The story takes us back to Hoover's earliest days at the Bureau of Investigation -- the FBI's predecessor -- when he was an ambitious young agent still living with his doting and somewhat controlling mother, Annie (Judi Dench, who plays a pivotal role in the film), and dementia-addled father (Jack Donner).

The film follows Hoover's rapid rise through the ranks; thanks to a convenient scandal, he became the bureau's director in 1924 at age 29. J. Edgar makes it clear that from the start of his career -- even before he joined the bureau -- Hoover was obsessed with maintaining law and order and outlawing all political dissent. Early in the story, his callous crusade to deport anarchist Emma Goldman (Jessica Hecht) establishes a lifelong pattern of trampling on civil liberties in the name of so-called national security.

It would impossible to depict every major event in Hoover's career, so J. Edgar focuses on a few highlights and lowlights, including the FBI's search for the Lindbergh baby's kidnapper, the Depression-era war on gangsters, and Hoover's many tangles with politicians such as Robert Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan) over his relentless pursuit of those he considered dangerous and disloyal. The film also gives credit where credit is due, explaining that Hoover introduced many modern crime fighting techniques (for example, a fingerprint database) that helped the FBI capture many notorious criminals.

J. Edgar also delves deeply into Hoover's personal life, skillfully walking the line between established facts and unsubstantiated rumors. While walking this line, the film thoroughly humanizes Hoover. Chief among the rumors was that Hoover and longtime FBI associate director Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) were lovers. J. Edgar all but assumes that Hoover was gay (and profoundly conflicted about it) and depicts the two men as being very fond of each other and inseparable until Hoover's death. But thanks to Hoover's extremely secretive nature, to this day there is no irrefutable proof that he and Tolson were sexually intimate, so the film never quite goes there.

And then there is the gossipy, snickering assumption that Hoover enjoyed wearing the occasional frilly dress or two. Again, there is no incontrovertible evidence that he was a cross-dresser; the stories are based mostly on hearsay. And again, J. Edgar acknowledges the possibility without pandering to our baser instincts by parading its subject in stockings and high heels. In this and many other instances, Dustin Lance Black's script doesn't ignore salacious rumors, but remains respectful of historical veracity. And just as the story gives Hoover credit where credit is due, it sympathizes where sympathy is due. J. Edgar often depicts Hoover as a paranoid, power-mad bastard, but a deeply troubled one.

Hoover's story is, of course, told with Eastwood's usual directorial finesse and attention to cinematic detail. I won't say that J. Edgar is Eastwood's greatest film as a director, if only because it has so much iconic competition. (Naming his best directorial effort is well nigh impossible, but I'd go with either Play Misty for Me or Unforgiven.) But J. Edgar is a seamless and captivating portrait of the life and times of a complex figure. It's one of the best films I've seen this year and no doubt will garner several Oscar nods.

DiCaprio carries the film as Hoover (but you knew that), proving once again his great range as an actor when given the right material. He's at his best as the latter-day Hoover, not because a layer of prosthetics make him greatly resemble the real Hoover, but because he perfectly nails his subject's slow burn as his health declines and he loses some of his former power and influence. Publically brusque and combative, he privately pines for the good old days when pesky attorneys general didn't challenge his ruthless ways.

I do hope the film's other performances aren't lost in DiCaprio's glare. Foremost among them is Dench's alternately stern and fawning Annie, who seems largely responsible for her son's Machiavellian world view and conflicted feelings about his sexuality. (At times, it's obvious that Hoover's ultimate goal isn't absolute power. What he really wants is to please his mother.) Hammer also is outstanding as the smooth and urbane Tolson, who grows weary of balancing his professional and personal relationships with Hoover and hiding behind a completely platonic façade. And Naomi Watts is excellent as Hoover's career-long personal assistant, Helen Gandy. She is the picture of stoicism, discretion and loyalty to a generally difficult boss.

Despite J. Edgar's sympathetic take on its subject (or maybe because of it), J. Edgar Hoover most certainly would not approve of the film; he'd probably open secret files on Eastwood and DiCaprio, if not everyone involved in the production. But that's all the more reason to see this terrific movie that dares humanize a much-reviled man.