American President, The

There are some people who will admire The American President and they’re all going to be good Americans.  An incongruous mix of mature age rom-com and political drama it intentionally re-works the tried-and-true Capraesque feelgood model mercilessly, wrapping up true love and political idealism in a shiny package that only an American could love while everyone else will be fighting against the inexorable pull of its egregious emotional manipulations.

Michael Douglas plays U.S. President and liberal Democrat Andrew Shepherd who is just gearing up for re-election when he meets and falls in love with perky environmental lobbyist, Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening). Shepherd wants to push a crime bill through Congress but Sydney persuades him to prioritize an unpopular carbon emissions bill.  He agrees to do so if she can win him the votes on the floor. And so she sets about her task  The twist is that Shepherd is a widower and his Republican opponent, Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss), attempts to smear Shepherd as betraying "family values”.  As Shepherd’s popularity falls he must decide between his heart and his political future.

The American President is well-made and has a strong cast but if one can accept and to some extent even enjoy the standard issue boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy get girl back again romance template, the day-to-day White House business is borderline fetishized. Aaron Sorkin's snappy script gives us “Mr President this” and “Mr President that” endlessly along with executive strategy meeting after executive strategy meeting interspersed with POTUS and Sydney fluttering around like a pair of lovebirds as the lobbying unfolds somewhere in the distant background, leading to an inevitable turn of events and a climactic speech by the humbled-by-love President that would have Jimmy Stewart rising from his grave.  Unfortunately it feels like the rosy romance has been carried over to the political realm (and if we were in any way at risk of finding such eyewash credible, Bill Clinton would soon make this fantasy totally untenable).

Had The American President stuck to the rom-com aspect it would have been a quirky little entertainment but the days when politicians could be presented as “men of character” have long gone and as a result the whole affair will ring false to anyone not willingly duped by Hollywood’s tinsel-festooning proclivities.

 

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