The joke goes that without Morgan Freeman’s frequent casting in films as either the President of the United States or God, Barack Hussein Obama would never have gotten to where he is now. One wonders then about George Clooney, whose political activism, directorial and writing efforts give credence to persistent rumours about an eventual bid for political office. In The Ides of March, Clooney plays a candidate for the office of POTUS. Set in the Ohio Democratic primary, the political thriller has Clooney’s dream candidate give one unapologetic red meat speech after another that will have all Democrats in the audience swooning.

Thankfully, The Ides of March is not about Clooney’s fictional presidential candidate, Mike Morris. There is no vast right-wing conspiracy to rob the election from Morris. Neither is the candidate a war veteran captured and brainwashed by this century’s Manchurian menace. The thriller derives its tension from watching Ryan Gosling play Stephen Morris, a fresh faced, idealistic high-flying senior campaign manager for the campaign.

Will he stumble? Will he be outsmarted and outmanoeuvred by more willy politicos – say his campaign boss played by Philip Seymour Hoffman or his counterpart in the rival campaign, played by Paul Giamatti? Will the two veterans eat him alive for breakfast, just as Anthony Hopkins did to his character in Fracture? Will he make grave mistakes by dating a loose-lipped intern? Such is the thrill of watching The Ides of March – on one hand, you do want to see Gosling’s intensely precocious character get knocked down a few pegs; on the other, you want to see him pay an appropriate price in getting out of trouble by the end.

Adapted from a play, The Ides of March has just two monologues and doesn’t feel stage-like at all. The story may be hardly original, but its tale of coming of age and loss of innocence is told competently pleasingly well. Best of all, indie film favourite Ryan Gosling proves with this film that he does have great roles to play in mainstream films.