J. Edgar (2011)

Awards

4 nominations
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Users' rating: 7.0

72 votes

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About the movie

Year

2011

Runtime

2 h 17 min

Genres

Biography, Drama

Country

United States

Director

Clint Eastwood

Writer

Dustin Lance Black

Plotline

As the face of law enforcement in America for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.

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Starring

Leonardo DiCaprio

Josh Hamilton

Geoff Pierson

Cheryl Lawson

Naomi Watts

Main cast

Leonardo DiCaprio J. Edgar Hoover

Josh Hamilton Robert Irwin

Geoff Pierson Mitchell Palmer

Cheryl Lawson Roberta Dixon Palmer

Kaitlyn Dever Palmer's Daughter

Brady Matthews Inspector

Gunner Wright Dwight D. Eisenhower

David A. Cooper Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ed Westwick Agent Smith

Naomi Watts Helen Gandy

Kelly Lester Head Secretary

Jack Donner Dickerson N. Hoover Sr.

Judi Dench Anna Marie Hoover

Dylan Burns Hoover as a Child

Jordan Bridges Labor Dept. Lawyer

Jack Axelrod Caminetti

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External critics' reviews

J. Edgar is a somber, enigmatic, darkly fascinating tale, and how could it be otherwise? more

As a period biopic, J. Edgar is masterful. Few films span seven decades this comfortably. more

DiCaprio may well receive a Best Actor Oscar for his tour de force as the conflicted FBI director -- greatly abetted by Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in "The Social Network'') in his first major role as the flamboyant but frustrated Tolson. more

The one mystery Black and Eastwood can't solve is Hoover's love life - perhaps because the solution is too simple to be believed. more

Although hardly flawless, Eastwood's biopic is his richest, most ambitious movie since the "Letters From Iwo Jima" Â "Flags of Our Fathers" duo, if not "Unforgiven." more

Mr. Eastwood doesn't just shift between Hoover's past and present, his intimate life and popular persona, he also puts them into dialectic play, showing repeatedly how each informed the other. more

This surprising collaboration between director Clint Eastwood and "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black tackles its trickiest challenges with plausibility and good sense, while serving up a simmeringly caustic view of its controversial subject's behavior, public and private. more

Filmed primarily in desaturated colors and oblique shadows, the look of J. Edgar is spot-on. The time frame jumps around, spanning decades in a single leap, but it doesn't strain the structure. Eastwood and DiCaprio have delivered a nuanced story about a man, a mythos, and an institution that relies on the facts rather than the legend. more

Even when the film trips on its tall ambitions, you can't shake it off. more

DiCaprio does more than disappear behind steely glasses and prosthetic old-age makeup. He transforms himself, in a feat of acting, from the inside out. more

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