1st hour poor, 2nd hour better, 3rd hour dull 5/10

Firstly this film is too long and I can happily sit through long films as long as they hold my interest. At 2 and a half hours long, J. Edgar was pushing it, especially because it takes a long time to really get into the story. I'm a fan of Clint Eastwood's films, Million Dollar Baby is a personal favourite of mine, but J. Edgar suffers from serious pacing issues. The film has the same problem that The Iron Lady had, told from the point of view of the character in an elderly state and it slowed the film considerably. The other major issue with this is the two story lines going on at once, the "modern" story and the "old" stories don't match, they are so different that you lose track of where you were in each one. The other issue being the story of how Edgar rose to power in the FBI is far more interesting than his quick decent into death.

Music in the film is fine but by no means spectacular, just your average strings driven arrangement. The camera is handled as Clint Eastwood often does with simplicity, nothing worth noting. Nicely framed and good at capturing the actor nuances, exactly what you want from a film of this kind. The scripting on the other hand was often laughable, especially in more dramatic moments. The "coming out" scene of Clyde Tolson is particularly funny, whether this is to do with bad acting on Armie Hammer's front or just poor scripting would involve re-watching, something that I wouldn't put myself through.

Though acting here is mostly good, Leonardo Di Caprio is obviously fantastic in the title role. Supporting actors are fine but once again nothing that stands out, Di Caprio and Hammer have decent chemistry. Naomi Watts is OK at best and Judi Dench seems to put little to no effort in her role. I haven't yet seen Dench play any other character other than Judi Dench, I think more notice needs to be put on Imelda Staunton in my opinion.

Now this isn't the worst of the elements of the film I have saved that for last. That goes to costume and makeup, now the bits based in the 1930's I'm pretty sure the actors don't have to wear clothes that are quite literally 80 years old? They look scruffy, and out of place even the costuming on more modern time characters is uninspiring. This element wasn't helped by seeing W.E. just before it whose costumes were a highlight. And the "old" make up on the actors was rubber, and you could tell. More gentle lighting could have been more forgiving on this makeup, but unfortunately it was very flushed out and you could see it was fake which completely destroyed the illusion. Once again after seeing The Iron Lady I expected more from this film on this front.

J. Edgar was a very disappointing, overlong and joyless ride. There are some poignant moments here, but they are over shadowed by poor scripting, bad costumes and makeup and uneven amateurish lighting. I expected a lot more from a veteran like Eastwood, but for a convincing portrayal of this historic man Leonardo Di Caprio does deliver, even if the rest of the film doesn't.