The Contender Reviewed

ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE

The Contender: Too Sweet for Politics

So, let’s see a show of hands: who thinks the United States is ready for a vice president who happens to be a Republican-turned-Democrat, an atheist… a vegetarian… and… a woman? Now, second show of hands: who can believe that a Republican leader of the house sponsors a hate-crimes bill? Finally, are you ready to be preached at for most of a movie that tops out over two hours, with more noble thoughts than one poor heart or movie can hold?

I try to go into a movie with no expectations, but I confess, I was looking forward to something better with this film. It certainly has a lot going for it: politics, sex, gossip, fine dining. But writer/director Rod Lurie never gets things right. Instead of a tightly paced political thriller, we get a rather sappy meller-drammer that’s more meller than drammer.

And more politically correct than correctly political. Although I proudly proclaim myself a liberal and a Democrat, I also proclaim myself a believer in fair play, and like Tom Brokaw’s book Greatest Generation, this movie needs a lesson in equal opportunity—for Republicans and conservatives. We are expected to cheer a woman’s advances (amen, a-women), but, doggone it, for all its political correctness, this is the whitest movie I’ve seen since American Beauty. Don’t some of these high-ranking white boys at least have a smart young African-American administrative assistant who does the real work?

The plot has more twists and tangles than an infamous Atlanta interchange, but the dramatic interest hinges on the silence of Laine Hanson (Joan Allen), who has been selected by the Democratic president to succeed the recently deceased vice president, as she is accused of sexual improprieties in college. (Gee, when she ran for senator, no one remembered the scandal surrounding the governor’s daughter?)

Shelly Runyon (Gary Oldman), her political nemesis, comes across more interesting, because he does something. Strangely, in a pro-feminist movie, Hanson in her silence comes across as more passive than noble. Maybe that’s because we are more accustomed to passive politicians than noble ones, but Runyon is all quirky energy, driven more by resentment (Hanson is a turncoat, having changed political parties) than by pure evil (remember that hate-crimes bill). Perhaps modern politics can’t deal with the concept of pure evil.

Gary Oldman, by the way, adds a stunning portrayal to his enigmatic gallery of characters. Unlike actors like Nicolas Cage and Denzel Washington, whose work I also very much admire, Oldman’s characters somehow avoid the baggage of Oldman himself. Like Harvey Keitel, he disappears into an assignment, and on the strength of this film may be appearing on some lists of nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He certainly stands out, even in this large and distinguished cast.

I guess I was expecting something tragic, but in a tragedy, Hanson’s hubris would have led to her downfall. As the food-obsessed president remarks, "We are no better than they are." Instead, The Contender feels more like a soap opera. Instead of insight and honest feeling, Lurie twists his film around yet another misleading plot device. Instead of character development, we get character tics. I’m still trying to figure why so much of the film has sports settings. The president welcomes the senator to the White House bowling alley (and sniffs his shoes before he puts them on). The senator jogs and shoots hoops. Somebody is playing golf when he gets some important papers. Maybe, as a late encounter between the president and Runyon suggests, politics is all just a game. Or, maybe, these characters are so shallow that they just play at life and don’t really live it.

This is turning into a whine of a review as tiresome as the film itself. Keep your feet dry, your heart full of noble thoughts, and your eyes and ears open for what the real politicians are doing in our real lives.