'The Ides of March' portrays dated politics

In a pre-election season fraught with hugely complicated issues -- health care,

unemployment

,

Wall Street

wealth -- comes "The Ides of March," an out-of-step political drama that rehashes the Clinton sex scandal. That was a simpler time: Remember getting all worked up about blue dresses and perjury? We have bigger problems now, but "The Ides of March" doesn't have a thing to say about them.

In this evergreen story about idealism and cynicism, Ryan Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, press secretary to presidential candidate Mike Morris. Morris is a masculine Democratic fantasy, partly because he looks like George Clooney (who also co-wrote and solidly directs), but also because he's unabashedly secular, pro taxes and anti-death penalty. Morris even gets another swing at the famous wife-murderer question that made Michael Dukakis look so soft on crime in 1988 (Charlie Rose does the pitching here).

"I'll do or say anything as long as I believe in it," says the starry-eyed Stephen, though he also beds an intern, Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood), and meets with opposing campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti). Both trysts turn out badly. Stephen first discovers that Molly has a sordid secret and is then fired by irascible campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Jobless, disillusioned and privy to a campaign-wrecking scandal, Stephen now has two options: exit gracefully, or pull out the knives.

Based on a play by co-screenwriter Beau Willimon, who worked on Howard Dean's campaign, "The Ides of March" is filled with fine performances (Gosling and Clooney do some intense tug-of-warring), but it feels like a relic from another era. The single-layered plot packs few surprises, and the overarching theme is one-dimensional: Politics is a dirty game. Indeed -- but surely you didn't need "The Ides of March" to tell you that.

Back story: Wood elects not to get political

Evan Rachel Wood has one of her most mature roles to date in George Clooney's political thriller "The Ides of March," in which she plays a young political campaign worker whose reckless behavior lands her in hot water.

"I loved how confident she was," Wood, 24, says of her precocious on-screen character. "This girl is really young, but she's grown up in this world, so she's really used to it and she's not intimidated by it."

Unlike her on-screen character, Wood has little interest in politics. Or, at least, she doesn't like to discuss it openly.

"As far as getting involved, I just get too upset and emotional about it," she says of talking politics. "When there's a big political debate in the room, I've got to leave because I just can't go there. It's so upsetting." Like so many Americans, Wood has grown cynical about government in the past few years.

"People ask me if I would get behind a certain candidate and I don't think I'd ever really be able to do that because it's not about the candidates anymore," she grouses. "The way the system works right now needs to change. I don't think it matters who you elect at this point. We've really got to start rethinking these things."

-- Entertainment News Wire