Ides of March suffers from telling a famillar story oversimply.  While unfamiliar with the Howard Dean-based source “Farragut North”, the Shakespearean parallels are intriguing enough, for their divergences.  Brutus does not suffer any nobility in betraying Caesar; Cassius no conspirator; Antony is stabbed not spared.  Instead of tragic collapse, Rome shuffles onward.  Like perhaps Gosford Park, the film will be nominated and forgotten within a year.