J. Edgar (2011)

Jack and I liked this bio-pic way more than we expected. Leonardo DiCaprio transforms (1, 2, 3) into the rigid, authoritative Hoover and we predict nominations for makeup and art direction at the least. Clint Eastwood directs his star studded cast with ultra-high production values and we liked the historical bent and the use of actors playing Robert Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan--Burn Notice, Changeling) and Nixon (Christopher Shyer), who, despite not looking much like their roles, had the voices down pat, including the latter's expletives. DiCaprio (after I wrote about him in Shutter Island he was in Inception) is very good in this, as are Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as his adoring colleague Clyde Tolson, Naomi Watts (covered in Mother and Child, then she was in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Fair Game) as his faithful secretary Helen Gandy, and Judi Dench (I loved her Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998), her Oscar-nominated turns in Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown (1997), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), and Notes on a Scandal (2006), as well as Tea with Mussolini (1999)) as his devoted and exacting mother. Eastwood (covered in Invictus, then directed Hereafter) treats the subject lovingly (despite a few goofs--this link contains spoilers, in my opinion) with a script by Dustin Lance Black (I wrote about him in Milk, which won him an Oscar). My only quibble with the movie is that even though Tolson was five years younger than Hoover (here's a photo from 1939), in the makeup of later years, Hammer looks much older than DiCaprio.

As usual, Eastwood composed the score and added songs of the times, but I can't find any links to the tracks, or even a list of songs. What I did find was this review by "blind film critic"--now there's a niche--in which he says he's made a list, but it has only three tracks on it. There is also this youtube link.

Rottentomatoes' scores are low: 41% critics and 56% audiences, which is part of why we didn't expect to like it (the other part is that Mary Ellen was lukewarm). A few hours before seeing it I saw Jon at the park. He likes metacritic better, and it likes this movie better, rating it 59% critics and 70% audiences. We think it's worth seeing.