October 31, 2011 -- This smartly-written political drama is a downer and it doesn't generate much sympathy for its characters, but the acting and the dialogue is about as slick and polished as it gets. Unfortunately the film makes the argument that political campaigns can only be won through Machiavellian machinations, political payoffs and sellouts. That may be true, but it doesn't make for very good entertainment. Think of this as the anti-Capra version of a sort of anti-Smith Goes to Washington. It is more like hold your nose and elect this scoundrel because he is better than the other scoundrel.

The better scoundrel is Governor Mike Morris (played by George Clooney of “Up in the Air”) he is way too liberal to get elected in the real world, but in this film he is running slightly ahead of a conservative opponent, Senator Pullman (Michael Mantell of “Ocean's 13”). Whoever wins Ohio will probably win the presidency, according to the political pros, headed up by Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman of “Before the Devil Knows You're Dead”). Zara runs the Morris campaign with the help of media whiz kid Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling of “Lars and the Real Girl”).

Team Morris is running pretty well until a sex scandal and campaign staff shakeup threatens to run the campaign off the rails. Meyers finds himself suddenly outmaneuvered and out of a job, but not out of the loop entirely. He still has one card to play to deal himself back into the big game. The story is like a game of limbo. The winner is the politician who can reach the lowest level of integrity. The screenplay, by Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon (based on Willimon's play Farragut North), has really smart, sassy dialogue. It is a pleasure to listen to. The actors are top-notch. The production values are very sharp. This is a very slick production all around.

The problem I had with this film is the venal nature of the characters. With the exception of Evan Rachel Wood, who plays campaign worker Molly Stearns, all the characters turn out to be slimy to one degree or another. If you like slime, Pullman's campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti of “The Illusionist”) does slime with some class. Even Marissa Tomei, who is very likeable as an actress, goes out of her way to twist the knife in somebody's back and then get gloat about it as the overly smug news reporter Ida Horowicz. Never a good idea to burn your sources, Ida. That can come back to haunt you like burned out bridges do. Zara is supposed to be stand-up character, but even he is petty at times, and not above back-stabbing.

All the back stabbing and double dealing in the film is depressing and uninspiring. It is not as depressing as real politics where all politicians, and some entire political movements, seem to be for sale to the highest bidder, but it is certainly depressing enough. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the dialogue, the acting and overall slick way this film was crafted. It rates a B.

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Copyright © 2011 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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