YOU might be forgiven for concluding that this American political thriller is a George Clooney vanity – he wrote and directed it and has second billing as Mike Morris, running for Democrat Party selection as Presidential candidate.
Top billing goes to Ryan Gosling as Stephen, second man in the campaign management team.
Other major players include Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Stephen’s immediate boss, George Giamatti as the other candidate’s manager and Marisa Tomei as a ruthless freelance reporter.
And Evan Rachel Wood as Molly, a political intern. In a cast of Hollywood majors, she stands out.
Not only for her breathtaking beauty. I blundered unsuccessfully through the Thesaurus in search of a word with more impact than “skill” to reflect the power of her acting.
In a film where we might see the candidate as hero, the screenplay (from the stage play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon) perceives the young, keen, capable but sometimes fallible Stephen as dramatically a better bet.
The plot is wonderfully devious, the tensions develop with inexorable inevitability (I love a good tautology) embedded in a strong surprise level.
Any film with George Clooney offers prospect of merit. If he keeps making vanities as powerful and well-crafted as this one, we will be well served.
At Dendy, Greater Union
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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