I recently was exposed to the film equivalent of mice scurrying fruitlessly in a tunnel for an hour and forty one minutes. If the movie had at least starred mice, it would’ve been cute. Though that would entail a mouse getting an abortion then OD’ing. Not so cute. To summarize:
George Clooney is running for President and Ryan Gosling is his co-campaign manager. Ryan Gosling finds out Clooney slept with the intern. The campaign manager, Philip Seymour Hoffman, fires Ryan Gosling.
The intern has an abortion then ODs.
Ryan Gosling blackmails George Clooney to give him Philip Seymour Hoffman’s job or he’ll leak that the intern had an abortion of Clooney’s baby before her suicide.
Clooney obeys.
Philip Seymour Hoffman congratulates Ryan Gosling at the intern’s funeral for outsmarting him. He also casually mentions while smoking a cigarette that he knew the young woman her whole life.
Ryan Gosling also slept with the intern.
Philip Seymour Hoffman announces that he is moving and going to work at a consulting firm.
George Clooney becomes president.
The End.
How are we supposed to feel when the credits roll? I know how I felt. Irritated. Hollow. Who exactly was I supposed to cheer for? I hated all the characters who came out on top in the end.
The movie falls- and falls hard on its face-in its treatment of the intern, Molly Stearns (played by a “cool girl” Evan Rachel Wood). This charismatic, hardworking woman is the mouse who toils until her oblivion, while the male mice around her scurry on and enjoy their cheese.
We care about Molly Stearns, at first. She’s down to clown- but also independent! So independent, in fact, not only does our cool girl assure Ryan Gosling that she doesn’t need an emotional attachment after they sleep together, but apparently she doesn’t need an attachment to the narrative either!
Evan Rachel Woods is around only long enough to influence the decisions of the story’s real players- the men. Her life and death are tools to further their agendas.
To the movie’s credit, it stays true to the treatment of women in actual politics. To the movies discredit, as well.