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For tactical reasons the distributors held up the release of this film in the UK, hoping that the lengthy wrangling of the American presidential election would not confuse matters. Rod Lurie’s entertaining drama of Washington politics takes a Democratic stance, with Jeff Bridges as an attractively affable president attempting to appoint the first woman vice-president.
His preferred candidate, an able young senator played by Joan Allen, finds her path obstructed by a conservatively minded committee chairman (Gary Oldman) with a misogynistic streak, his opposition is given a substantial fillip when evidence is uncovered that she submitted to a collegiate gangbang a couple of decades earlier. Far from defending or denying it, she refuses even to discuss it, arguing that it is beneath her dignity.
It is a well-acted film, with the principals offering believable performances, although the writing is occasionally glib and simplistic. Bridges, in spite of the lack of definition in his characterisation (where is his first lady, for instance?) brilliantly conveys a man whose outwardly easygoing nature disguises basic ruthlessness. A fine scene displaying this is when he discusses the muckraking with an eager neophyte congressman (Christian Slater) in front of the White House’s presidential portraits.
Less convincing is his stirring final speech which has been gussied up with unnecessary music to make him sound like the animatronic Abraham Lincoln at Disneyland.
Food is an underlying metaphor, with key scenes in restaurants. The president is forever testing the White House kitchens with exotic orders, only stumping them over a humble cheese sandwich, and at a significant lunch moment Allen is seen to be vegetarian, Oldman a carnivore.
For followers of the intricacies of American politics there is considerable appeal.
