We’re in Ohio and it’s snowing. Gov. Mike Morris is ahead in the polls and seems a cinch to win the state, the nomination and probably the White House. If the movie went that far, he probably would, because he’s George Clooney and all the women and all the liberals in the world will vote for him. It’s not that easy.

Morris would win because he has Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Paul Zara, running his ship. He would probably win because his press secretary is Ryan Gosling, and Gosling is almost as big a movie star as the finally getting older Clooney. Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, a smart, hip upcoming political power player wearing all of Iago’s underwear and Machiavelli’s iPhone.

On the other team there is a Sen. Pullman (Michael Mantell), another Democrat, who seems to be in the warm-milk mold of Dick Durban of Illinois, but who has never heard of the Tea Party.

Gosling’s Meyers is considered by all the players to be the best and the brightest. He is the master of spin and charms, all except Ida Horowicz (a finally getting older Marisa Tomei) a top-rung reporter for the dreaded New York Times.

So far, it seems to be another political pot-boiler in the mold of Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man.” Then we meet Molly (Evan Rachel Wood) who is not only corn yellow of hair and blueberry eyed, but the daughter of the head of the Democratic National Committee. Of course, Molly, an apprentice on the campaign, will smash into Stephen, bat her eyes and remind him that she was 16 when first they met.

There will be the bar scene with close-ups and giggles and goshes in a hotel bedroom. Having gotten that over with, Clooney the director, moves on and dances us slowly down into the end of love, both for the party, the campaign and the lovers. That’s the way it looks … until it doesn’t.

Enter two more Shakespearean players, and what players they are: Hoffman as Clooney/Morris’s campaign manager, clearly based on the famous Ed Rollins, and the hard as a billiard ball campaign manager, Tom Duffy, Paul Giamatti. Clooney’s good idea: Put Giamatti and Hoffman in the mix and no matter what goes wrong, no ticket buyer gets cheated.

Okay, it’s a political thriller with all of the dirty dealings, shady maneuvers, cliché back-room deals, and cri de coeurs from the left and right. We get the stump speeches, and strong-jawed video shots, expensive suits and shoes floating down the halls of expensive hotels whilst Ohio’s snow coats the black limo windows. “All The President’s Men?” No. But there is enough in the personal folders of all the players to suggest that they are capable of darkness.

Much of what plays out, plays out nightly on our flat screens at home, and so one may be lulled into a been-there-done-that nap. Wake up. This is much better. What makes this different is that the action here isn’t anywhere near about winning the brass ring.

The story centers on the outskirts, far from the Beltway. We’re only at the Ohio primary with many bigger battles yet to come. So what we get is a small-framed morality play that puts tiny familiar figures center stage for us to view, and supplies them with capes and daggers that will make them more dangerous in the big show.

Clooney certainly has paid attention on his long climb from small-screen sitcom to big screen and national prominence. His camera choices are well done and teaming up with cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, whose lights and shadows keep us in the mood. Kudos to the writing gifts of playwright Beau Willimons from whose play “Farragut North” the story was taken.

“Ides of March” burns slowly, not like a candle, but a fuse. When the explosions come, after a triad of finales, they come not with fireballs but deep rumbles. In the end, we discover that Winston Churchill was right when he said, “In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.”

J.P. Devine is a former stage and screen actor.