J. Edgar

Rated R Drama/Biography

I will be the first to admit, I knew NOTHING about J Edgar Hoover, though I totally knew his name. This may sound terrible, but I thought he had been out President, because lets be honest, Herbert Hoover isn't very memorable.. I will also be very honest in saying that I was REALLY skeptical of this movie. I do love Clint Eastwood, mainly for Gran Torino (I laughed harder at that movie than I probably should have and I laughed because I totally understood and it was making me so happy) but heres why I was weary. Biographies like this can be REALLY slow. And dark, which makes for a boring movie. Let me tell you, this movie was anything but boring. So interesting that I have thought about it for the last two days.

This movie paints such a great picture of the man. I loved it mainly because it didn't tell only what he did in his personal life and not only what he did in his professional life. It told it all! I think thats why I have such a problem with other government officials movies.. It only tells one side of the story, maybe thats because the people aren't all around interesting?? I learned right from the begining something that I never knew. Hoover helped start the system for coding books in libraries, making them easier to find! Might be super simple, but too interesting for me haha Also, makes sense why he wanted to do the same with people while creating the FBI. The movie deals with his personal and professional lives, talking about a few specifics in both. Theres the story about trying to find a missing child and about how he blackmailed basically every president to keep the FBI up and running. It also looks at his odd personal life, or lack of one. He had a somewhat strange relationship with his mother, zero relationship with women, but couldn't bring himself to have a relationship with the one man he did love, his right hand man, Tolson. I loved getting to see who he was in both areas of his life. It made him more of a person to me, unlike most movies in this genre do.

I HAVE to tip my hat to DiCaprio and Hammer. DiCaprio is freakin amazing in just about anything he is in, and he completley sold me on Hoover. I fell in love with Hammer in Social Network, and this movie made me realize that he really is going to be a force to be reckoned with. He will be around for a long, long time.

5 out of 5 stars