Based on Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North,” George Clooney’s latest directorial effort “The Ides of March” is a sharp and timely drama, whose allusions to the ruthless ambition and corruption that run rampant in the game of American politics hit all too close to home.

Campaigning on behalf of Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), a blatantly Obama-inspired Democratic candidate and presidential hopeful, political genius Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) finds his meteoric rise through the governor’s camp on the verge of collapse in a mere matter of days leading up to the Ohio primary. Idealistic yet ambitious, Stephen starts out firmly believing that Mike is the one who can make a difference in people’s lives, even as others, including the team’s campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), remain cynical.

Unsettled when the opposing candidate’s seedy campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) suddenly tries to get him to switch sides, Stephen remains convinced that he has everything under control right up until the moment that he loses it. In the meantime, he must process a surprising secret that forces him to look at his idol and mentor, Mike, in an entirely new light. As the crucial primary election approaches, Stephen and Mike’s political fates become ever more intertwined.

Gosling is vibrant as always, capturing Stephen’s gradual transition from the passionate optimism that characterized his initial work ethic to the formidable coldness that later becomes his defense mechanism. Hoffman, Giamatti and Clooney, despite having comparatively less screen time, still carry a strong presence that resonates with authority. The heavyweight cast is rounded out by solid performances from Marisa Tomei as a manipulative New York Times reporter and Evan Rachel Wood as a seductive intern.

The smart script, co-written by Clooney, Willimon and Grant Heslov, fits contemporary culture and politics like a glove. While this is due, in part, to the fact that the original play was inspired by events surrounding Howard Dean in 2004, there is no denying that the visuals bear uncanny resemblance to Obama’s presidential campaign, and that the story takes bits and pieces from the current national dialogue. The sex scandal that erupts late in the film will seem all too familiar, like something that could easily have been in the news just yesterday, and the portrayal of the politicians and their behind-the-scenes puppeteers is spot-on.

While the direction may be a bit heavy-handed at times (for example, when the camera lingers moments too long on obvious icons like the American flag), “The Ides of March” still packs a powerful punch. A popular criticism lobbied against the film is that it does not go far enough in its criticism, but that may actually be one of its greatest assets. Rather than being explicitly didactic, Clooney has crafted a story world so very similar to our own that, in becoming immersed in it, we are empowered to see for ourselves what ought to change.