The Contender, or Mrs. Smith Goes To Washington

It’s so unfortunate that my quote is true. But more on that later. First a preview.

FINDING FORRESTER-The new film by Gus Van Sant starring Sean Connery looks like it should be called Good Will Forrester. It’s about a black, inner city kid who is only known as a basketball player in his local college. Suddenly he finds this Forrester guy (Sean) who wrote “the great American novel” of the 20th century and then disappeared. Forrester helps him become a better writer and no one can believe it.

I’ll see it because I like Van Sant (even after Psycho Redux) and I love Connery, but I can’t help thinking that Gus is looking for another Ben and Matt. This new script is by Mike Rich who won the Nicholl Fellowship from the AMPAS and then sold his first script. It will probably be very good, but it’s a rehash. Maybe Sean will get an Oscar nod for it. Wouldn’t surprise me. Robin Williams got one for the same role.

And now, the real movie:

Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) is in the running for replacing the vice president. Pres. Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) believes that she is the right person for the job. Unfortunately for both of them, Shelly Runyon (Gary Oldman) doesn’t. He is able to dig up some sexual discrepancies from her past, put them on the internet and crush her dreams of becoming the first female VP.

And somehow no political activism gets in the way of this plot. There’s almost no mention of what’s going on in the world. Occasionally they bring up abortion or separation of church and state, but those are mere sidelines to the important issue at hand. Will a Republican asshole congressman allow a woman to become VP?

With the help of Reginald Webster (Christian Slater in his first real role since 1998′s Very Bad Things), the youngest man (I think) to be on the committee to confirm the VP, Runyon finds ways to get America to constantly sway their vote of confidence. Is she a slut? Is she a baby killer? Will she drop and give the President a hummer while he’s on the phone with the heads of state?

Now, we Southparkateers know that there’s a time and place for everything, and it’s called college. Who cares if this lady had one drunken orgy when she was 19? I’m sure she’s matured quite a bit since then. But Mr. Runyon, of course, doesn’t feel that way.

This is one of those movies that, as soon as you see the preview, you know it’s going to be a big Oscar flick. It’s a controversial issue, but not so controversial that the Academy is scared of it. It also allows for lots of great performances from some very good actors. Not to mention that fact that it’s the closest to classic Hollywood that I’ve seen in quite a while, although The Green Mile came close, too. Even with some of the harsh talk about sex it was very close to something that would have been released about 40 years ago with Jimmy Stewart in drag, complete with big music swells during Hanson’s and Evans’ grandstanding scenes (a bit much, I think) and “The End” written at the end (kind of cool to see every once in a while). But I don’t hold that against it because it’s very well written and acted. Jeff Bridges big Oscar speech almost made me want to run out and run for office. But then I figured that there’s not enough controversy in my life.

This is Rod Lurie’s second feature, but it’s the first that anyone has ever heard of. (His first was a film called Deterrence with Kevin Pollack as the President. That just can’t be right.) He handles it with dignity and a lot of handheld shots. I felt like I was watching a very good episode of NYPD Blue.

Jeff Bridges’ President is a bit of an enigma. He starts off as kind of a bubba type dude. As Film Threat says, he’s kind of like his character, The Dude, from The Big Lebowski. Now, this isn’t a bad thing. What it does is humanize a President. He’s so enamored of the fact that he can get anything anytime from the White House kitchen that he will call them up and order the oddest things. (This becomes a pretty funny running gag that breaks up some of the more dramatic scenes.) But at some point in the film we realize that his seeming rubeness is just a façade to get people to think that he’s not all there when actually he’s just taking everything in and is ready to use it against his enemies. He’s really very intelligent, but it’s to his advantage that only certain people to know it. His scene with Slater when he tries to figure out exactly why this kid is trying to destroy his potential running mate is a great example of Bridges at his Peter Falkiest.

Sam Elliott is great as The Dude’s sidekick, Kermit Newman. He’s at turns brash, to the point and caring. He may think that Evans’ decision to have a female VP is only a cause for the President to fight for, but dammit, he’ll stand by that decision and try to make Senator Hanson into the best damn VP we’ve ever had. And he won’t let her be brought down by a simpering little weasel like Runyon. The only problems I have with him are his name and his lack of a mustache. I was happy every time someone called him K because there’s no way I’m taking someone named Kermit seriously. And Sam needs his mustache. Without it there are certain smiles that he gives that make him look rather unfortunately like a Kermit. And it’s never good to look like a frog.

And speaking of Oldman, he’s uniformly amazing as this simpering little weasel. He’s ultra-conservative, not very smart, but still too smart for his own good. His personal life is in a shambles, but he doesn’t know it because he’s too busy trying to destroy a life. I’m really glad that Oldman has found a new kind of bad guy to play. Ever since The Professional he’s been this over the top, nearly drug induced terrorist type dude without a sympathetic bone in his body. He’s great at that character, but it’s good to see him somewhere else. He’s still a bad guy, but he thinks that what he’s doing is right for the country. It’s not just his insecurities at work; it’s his idea of what America should be. And while that’s not exactly a good idea, it is a lot of people’s idea.

Christian Slater is, well…he’s Christian Slater. Not much else can be said about him at this point. At least he’s not Jack Nicholson Lite anymore. He’s really not a bad actor and I do consider myself a fan, but I’ve seen him play the same role so many times that I’ve kind of lost faith in the former ol’ JD. Here he’s given a little more to work with to show what range he has. He’s passable, but not great.

Joan Allen, on the other hand, is amazing. She handles what could have been a total grandstanding role into a major achievement for this kind of role. She can’t let it be known whether or not it’s her in the pictures with a big, well…we’ll leave that to the imagination. Her silence is an admission to some people, but it’s really an invalidation of the question. What business is it of theirs whether she did it or not?

So watch for Joan next year in March and probably the movie, too. I don’t know that it’s going to be one of the five best pictures of the year, but I’m sure the Academy will think so. It just reminded me too much of The Insider to not be their kind of movie.

Very good film, though, and an important one for everyone to see. I have to admit that I fall prey to the stud/slut double standard at times, but I don’t like the fact that it’s there. And that’s what this whole movie is about. If Senator Hanson were a man what would Runyon and his cronies be saying about him? Would they see him as a promiscuous, dangerous man for public office or would they just think that he was an experimental college student who was getting his rocks off while he still could?

It’s a question for the ages that can’t be answered in two hours, but it can be addressed very well.