I have a feeling that this film, as with pretty much any biography of J. Edgar Hoover, is going to be debated for a long time to come. The man was an enigmatic figure and any attempt to explore his highly guarded private life is going to be marred with speculation. But historical accuracy is really only one piece of the puzzle – the J. Edgar Hoover depicted by Leonardo DiCaprio is a fascinating character, and in the end that should be more than enough reason to see the film.
Judged solely on its ability to hold my attention, J. Edgar scores high marks. I knew little of Hoover’s legacy before going into this film, so watching director Clint Eastwood reconstruct the era, with “context” as Hoover would put it, was an absorbing experience. So much so that I entered into a Wikipedia foray (the most reliable source on just about everything, no matter what your profs say) on the subject almost the second I got home. As ruthless as he was as a lawman, Hoover was light-years before his time when it came to using forensics to solve crimes.
Of course, the flip side of that Wikipedia exploration is the fact that J. Edgar can oftentimes be a very confusing film. It frequently jumps from timeline to timeline, in and out of different investigations and different eras, while throwing in an unreliable narrator for good measure. Needless to say, there were times during the movie where I wasn’t sure what year we were in or the significance of certain events, and subsequent research was needed.
However, throughout it all, DiCaprio shines. J. Edgar is one part historical drama and one part character study and DiCaprio does a fantastic job of the latter, skilfully capturing Hoover over the four decades he spent as the Director of the FBI (with a little help from the makeup department). It’s through DiCaprio that we get to delve into Hoover the man, a man of many contradictions, to learn exactly what made him do what he did. His rumoured homosexuality, his unusual relationship with his mother – without the strength of a quality actor like DiCaprio these aspects of the character would fall short.
DiCaprio certainly doesn’t do it all on his own though. Dame Judi Dench makes excellent use of her limited screen time as Hoover’s somewhat controlling mother, and Armie Hammer (both of the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network) undergoes a similar age transformation, giving a strong performance as Hoover’s alleged romantic partner and second-in-command, despite the apparent difficulty of turning a 25-year-old into a convincing old man.
Inevitably, J. Edgar is the kind of movie that needs to be seen before it can be judged. The film is undoubtedly divisive, and not because of the controversy that will likely surround the depiction of Hoover’s personal life, but simply because of the way the narrative is structured. It’s the kind of film that could just as easily win Academy Awards as it could disappear into obscurity, and it’s safe to assume the opinions of its audience will vary accordingly.
