If Hoover were still around today, he'd open an investigation into J. Edgar immediately. There'd be bugs and wire taps in the home of writer Dustin Lance Black and the office of director Clint Eastwood. He wouldn't be looking for information on how they got so much dirt on his own life, though. That'd be easy enough to figure out. What Hoover would probably be looking for is the reason why a biopic of a life and career as big as his translated into a film that's so careful and lifeless.
The answer to the question can be found on two fronts. Dustin Lance Black should've been the perfect fit to chronicle the life of Hoover, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigations for half a century and saw it through some of biggest cases in this country's history. Black has proven to be an insightful, ballsy writer when it comes to tackling complicated figures, such as his unflinching script for Milk a couple of years ago. So it's surprising that the script for J. Edgar is so timid and scattershot, dancing around both the issues of his sexuality and the cases he led that would shape the FBI forever.
On the other hand, there's Eastwood's direction, which is too flat for a story this big. It covers all the technical bases, looks good and represents the film's two major time periods in the 1920s and 1960s authentically. But there's a serious energy gap present throughout that will have you begging for Oliver Stone to pick up the reins and spice things up.
Hoover(Leonardo DiCaprio) was a polarizing figure all his life, using his powers as head of the FBI to not only expand the agency's power throughout the country, but also to wage personal wars against those he deemed to be enemies. He was a man always in need of a crusade, someone to fight against. As presented in the film, part of the reason he may have always needed a new witch hunt is that he himself was living something of a double life. From an early age, Hoover was awkward, especially around women. His mother(Judi Dench) pressured him to be great from the start, which screwed him up terribly. Constantly denying who he was made him paranoid and quick to anger. But in there also was a fierce defender of the innocent, who worked hard to improve law enforcement techniques to better solve crimes. He knew how to exploit the media to his own advantage, using the high profile Charles Lindbergh(Josh Lucas) child kidnapping case to expand the Bureau's power. The power sorta goes to Hoover's head, though, which could have made for a great "fall from grace" story.
Nobody cares about that stuff, though. It's his vices that people want to know about. His prejudices, his bouts of racism directed towards Martin Luther King. His sexual tendencies. If Black had been so inclined, there's a wealth of material just in the delicious irony of this closeted man with all the power in the world, targeting those he deemed to be different. Hoover finds his soulmate of sorts in Clyde Tolson(Armie Hammer), a beautiful and equally driven young man who becomes more than a friend and probable secret lover. The film barely touches on the nature of their relationship, but frustratingly never commits.
DiCaprio may seem like an odd choice to play Hoover, but he actually slips easily into the role when depicting him as a young, confident wunderkind. Unfortunately, there's not enough make up in the world to make it work when playing Hoover as an old man. Armie Hammer proves that his star making turn in The Social Network wasn't a fluke, as he more than holds his own opposite DiCaprio. Unfortunately, Naomi Watts has nothing to do playing Hoover's secretary and confidant, Helen Gandy. Her relationship with Hoover, where she's basically the keeper of all his secrets, could have been the basis for an entire movie, but it's barely given a thought until the end when it no longer matters.
More often than not, it's impossible to encapsulate any historical figure's life into a single movie. Hoover led the type of existence that demands a three hour film or a mini-series. So it becomes imperative that a biopic of this sort make as much of an impact as possible in the time provide. J. Edgar is simply too incoherent and unfocused.
