Leonardo DiCaprio shines in J. Edgar

Who's in it? Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Ed Westwick, Armie Hammer

The plot Spanning the entire life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man who served as the director of the now-needs-no-introduction FBI from its inception in 1924 until his death in 1972 (working under a mind-boggling total of eight presidents), this Clint Eastwood-helmed biopic showcases both his professional achievements as well as the secrets that simmered underneath the surface.

Moving back and forth between the 20s and 30s (when he's at the peak of his career) and the late 60s (when he's transcribing his memoirs as an old man), the movie, if a little scatterbrained in script, captures the essence of this man. This is in major part to Lenoardo DiCaprio's stellar, strong and physical performance - another Oscar nomination is most certainly in the bag.

As the head of the FBI, Hoover was famously paranoid and obsessed with moral order. His legacy lives on in the modern world, as he's the man who implemented many Big Brother-style surveillance techniques, as well as fingerprinting.

However, his tunnel vision that meant he focused only on his career, his secret anxieties and his foreboding, and his controlling mother (Dench), meant that he had few friends or meaningful relationships in his life.

He did propose at one point to a typist in the Bureau, Helen Gandy (Watts), but she politely declined - deciding to become his secretary for the next 40 years instead. And it's his friendship with FBI agent Clyde Tolson (played by Hammer - who's best known for his role as both the rowing Winklevoss twins in The Social Network) that was his closest, and this is the most skirted-around and yet pivotal relationship in the film.

This movie has divided critics - many see Clint Eastwood's direction as apathetic (although they are all singing Leo's praises in unison) - and yes, it is confused in pace, and unsympathetic to its lead characters, but then it's a biopic of one of the most confused and unsympathetic characters in modern American history, and so it's successfully - although harshly - true to its complex subject.

Rating 3 out of 5