J. EDGAR | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"J. EDGAR"
(2011) (Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer) (R)

QUICK TAKE:
Drama: As he deals with current issues of his day, the director of the FBI dictates the history of his nearly half-century term with the agency.

PLOT:
As the long-standing director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover (LEONARDO DICAPRIO) wants the world to know of his nearly half-century term with the agency and thus is dictating his memoirs to a number of agency journalists. While doing so, we flashbacks to his early years with what was then known as the Bureau of Investigation while he still lived with his controlling mother, Annie (JUDI DENCH).
Appointed director of that agency in 1924, he then assigns new secretary Helen Gandy (NAOMI WATTS) to be his personal assistant, and then hires the dashing Clyde Tolson (ARMIE HAMMER) into his circle, eventually appointing him as his second-in-command.
From the rise of folk hero bank robbers to the kidnapping of Charles Lindberg's baby, rumors about Eleanor Roosevelt's sexuality up through the threat of communism, the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Nixon, Hoover ends up having a hand in reshaping crime fighting as well as the scientific gathering of information on others.
But he also begins a track record of abusing the latter for his own gains and power plays, something that doesn't sit well with Clyde, his long-time confidant, travel companion and possible lover over their many years together, both personally and working for the agency.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
Unless they're interested in the FBI and the history of Hoover as its director, or might be fans of DiCaprio or another cast member, it doesn't seem too likely.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R
For brief strong language.

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