by Connor Martin ’13

The Olney Theatre Center has several shows playing each month in its different theatres. In July, one of the shows that graced the stage of Olney Theatre was “Farragut North,” a political thriller based loosely off of the 2004 presidential campaign for Howard Dean, that was extended past its original ending date several times. “Farragut North,” written by Beau Willimon, was so popular in theatre productions across the country that it has become the basis for the film, “The Ides of March,” directed by George Clooney with executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio that was released on October 7.

In some of the most recent movies that are based off other literary works, many people believe that “the book is better than the movie.” In this case, the “play is better than the movie.” “Farragut North” revolves around the quick descent of Stephen Bellamy (Danny Yoerges), a young political genius working for a campaign to elect in the Democratic National Primaries. In the play, Bellamy quickly learns how simple gaps in judgment can cause serious whiplash for any career in hardball politics.

“The Ides of March” has the same basic storyline, or at least it does for the first hour. Instead of Bellamy, the main character is Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), who works under campaign executive Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) in order to elect the Governor of Pennsylvania Mike Morris (George Clooney) as the Democratic nominee for the presidential race. The movie’s conflict starts in the same way as the play, when Stephen makes the critical mistake of meeting with the opposing campaign executive Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), who offers Stephen the chance to jump ship and work for the opposing candidate.

Both the play and movie keep the intensity level at a high and in both, the acting starts out phenomenally with outstanding performances from both Gosling and Yoerges in their respective shows. While “Farragut North” continued this fantastic drama all the way through to the end, the movie version of the play included a twist that shows where the two shows split where the play soars as the movie starts to go downhill.

The problem with Hollywood is that every movie seemingly has to be dramatized and pushed to the extreme limits of the plot line in order to be theatre-worthy. Where the play is able to end while still keeping the conclusion within the realm of possibility, the movie blows the entire story out of proportion. After the first hour of the show, there are a series of unfortunate events that cause confusion and unnecessary drama that gets dragged out to the point where the audience is almost begging for the credits.

“The Ides of March” includes more characters than necessary, more plot twists than necessary, and frankly, more air time than necessary. The movie should have stuck to the actual script that Willimon wrote. If it had, then maybe there would be a more positive reaction from someone who has seen both versions of the story.

In this movie, Hollywood needs to stay out of a flawless play so that the audience will still be able to enjoy the story the way it was meant to be.

The film is rated R, and people who have seen “Farragut North” will only leave the movie theatres disappointed. As for any other people who were interested in seeing the movie, it’s a great way to kill some time when there are no other movies available and there’s nothing good to watch on TV.