Typically a fan of all things Eastwood and most things Dicaprio, I was a little shocked and saddened to not absolutely enjoy J. Edgar. At the heart, it's a good movie. However it lacks the ambition I would have expected from a period based biographical piece about J. Edgar Hoover. Too many things are brushed over and not given enough depth of character or story.
Way too much time is spent on Hoover's rumored homosexual partnership with Clyde Tolson. I felt it was presented poorly and offered too much of an opionated and slanted view of the man. Instead of presenting us with factual data, we were given a fictionalized story that doesn't really serve the man's memory. If this were part of his life, okay. But, too much time was wasted harping on that one relationship. Was Hoover a nice guy? Probably not. Yet, we could have judged for ourselves from hearing the real story instead of Eastwood's overtly dramatic personal vendetta.
Dicaprio does fine with the material he's presented. Unfortunately, there just wasn't much weight to carry. The film is a hackneyed jab at Hoover that strays from history lesson to dramatized fiction way too often. I would suggest seeing it if you're a fan of fiction.
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