Leonardo DiCaprio has become a chameleon for Martin Scorsese in film documentaries, changing into Howard Hughes & Jordan Belfort with ease in excellent films like "The Aviator" and "The Wolf of Wall Street".
It must have seemed a natural fit to pair Leo with Director Clint Eastwood for a biopic of FBI man Hoover in J EDGAR.
As hard as DiCaprio tries, he never becomes the dogged, insecure lawman. Buried beneath bad make-up and a one-note script from Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black, Leo can only alternate between introspective angst for his Mother's approval and repressed longing for his lifetime companion Clyde Tolson.
Poor Armie Hammer does what he can as Tolson, but his old age make-up is twice as bad as Leo's. Roddy McDowell had an easier time emoting in his ape make-up in the "Planet of the Apes" film series than poor Hammer.
Judi Dench is given very little to do as J. Edgar's rigid, staunch Mother and Naomi Watts is wasted as his long suffering secretary.
The structure of the film follows Hoover as he narrates his story to a biographer, sharing key moments in the development and success of the FBI during prohibition, the Lindbergh kidnapping and the Nixon Administration.
We've all heard the stories about J Edgar dressing up in women's clothes and the fact that he had a lifelong companion in Tolson, but the way these facts are presented by the screenplay generates compassion for Tolson in the way he was treated, but rarely Hoover, who has no regard for his personal life or those around him until far too late in his long life.
Without a likeable subject at its center, the story just breaks down into an episodic tale of Hoover's search for approval.
I am a huge fan of both Eastwood and DiCaprio's work, but this is one of their lesser efforts and very disappointing considering their proven & unique talents.
Long and boring, J Edgar gets a D.
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