J.Edgar *

Well, not always can we expect a superb director-actor double to work. And certainly this biopic on John Edgar Hoover, the man responsible for the inception of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and also for taking it to an unprecedented level, fails to impress. Miserably.

Clint Eastwood's direction seems dull for most part of it and he stretches it too far at the end. And because of that, the result would definitely not fetch him Million Dollar Baby.  Leonardo DiCaprio's portrayal of Edgar lacks the charisma of the person who supposedly out rooted the seeds of communism in America. He was not that bad. It's just that he is capable of so much more. You find it difficult to resist from the glimpses of his similar portrayal of a famous man in the cult Aviator. And in comparison, Edgar clearly losses to Howard.

The movie uses the passe flashback cinematography to interlink various stages of Edgar's life. Set up in the backdrop of the rise of radical communists in America in the earlier decades of twentieth century, the plot revolves around the unshaken determination of a man to fight crime and to institutionalize the skills that developed in the due process. The problem here being that Clint decides to go micro on some of the issues and the audience fails to visualize the gigantism of this extra-ordinary man.

The highs of the movie- The speeches which Edgar makes to the Congress defending his Bureau, impressive depiction of the influence of his mother on his persona and powerful narration in the voice of DiCaprio. And yes, the part of Edgar's life, when he was gay. The bloody man-to-man lip-lock gives the audience something to talk about. At the end, it doesn't even qualify for a movie. If you missed the documentary on Edgar which was aired on History Channel, you can think about going. But even then, I would say, avoid it!