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THE FRONT RUNNER
Director: Jason Reitman Cast: Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J.K. Simmons, Mark O'Brien, Molly Ephraim, Mamoudou Athie, Steve Zissis, Chris Coy, Alex Karpovsky, Josh Brener, Tommy Dewey, Kaitlyn Dever, Oliver Cooper, RJ Brown, Alfred Molina, Kevin Pollak, Ari Graynor, John Bedford Lloyd, Steve Coulter, Spencer Garrett, Bill Burr, Mike Judge MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:53 Release Date: 11/7/18 (limited); 11/16/18 (wider); 11/21/18 (wide) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 15, 2018 Looking at the political downfall of Gary Hart from a variety of angles, The Front Runner doesn't take a position on anything. It doesn't condemn Hart, whose 1987 primary campaign for the next year's Presidential election came crashing down over allegations of an extramarital affair, but the movie also doesn't pardon him. Out of one side of its mouth, the movie tears into the political press for going wild over rumors and speculation, and out of the other, it offers an argument that a politician's personal life is fair game, especially when that private side seems to contradict a politician's public statements and positions. Such a middle-ground approach can work with material that has this many moral, ethical, and political angles, but Matt Bai, Jay Carson, and director Jason Reitman's screenplay doesn't really dig into those underlying issues in a way that justifies the approach. This interpretation of the story, based on Bai's book All the Truth Is Out, is more about the assorted processes behind the scandal than the consequences. The movie doesn't take a side, but it also doesn't arrive at a lesson, a message, or much of a point. Reitman's mostly objective approach can be seen from the start, with a long, dynamic single take that follows the press pool outside a hotel before the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Through the din of reporters talking on camera and behind the scenes, we learn that Hart (Hugh Jackman), then a U.S. Senator from Colorado, has finished in second place among the candidates for his party. He has no hope for the Democratic candidate this time, but the field will be wide open for a man like him, with strong ideas and an ability to communicate them effectively to the public. Sure enough, in the 1988 election cycle, Hart is the front runner, polling well ahead of his party competition and anyone on the Republican side. The screenplay shifts focus between an assortment of characters within different branches of the political game, which Reitman fashions in a pseudo-documentary style that, in the multiple scenes of politicos chattering over each other, emphasizes the confusion of what actually happened here. There's Hart's side, seeing him as a man of ideals, not only in his politics but also in his belief of how politics should be played. He's comfortable speaking in front of large crowds or to individual people about policy, but he literally flinches while someone applies makeup for a photoshoot with his family. In their side of the story, Hart's campaign, from its manager Bill Dixon (J.K. Simmons) and all the way down to the various aids, have difficulty convincing their man that the public wants to see a personal side to him. The reporters who want those more personal photos and details about the candidate's life take up a large chunk of the narrative. They're represented mostly by AJ Parker (Mamoudou Athie), a young and idealistic reporter for the Washington Post, who's conflicted between letting Hart speak in the way he wants and trying to get into his personal life, as well as Tom Fielder (Steve Zissis) and other reporters at the Miami Herald. An anonymous tip sends Fielder to Washington, D.C., where he spots Donna Rice (Sara Paxton) entering and leaving Hart's residence multiple times, after what appear to be long stays. Finally, there's the side of Hart's family, primarily Hart's wife Lee (Vera Farmgia). When news of her husband's possible affair breaks, Lee is trapped by the press at the family's ranch in Troublesome Gulch (There's an appropriate name, if there ever was one), while dealing with the possibility of a private betrayal. There's a fascinating coupling to be found here, if one looks at this aspect of the narrative along with a long talk between Donna and Irene Kelly (Molly Ephraim), a member of Hart's campaign. It's the closet the movie comes to confronting the real and personal consequences of this scandal, and it makes more of an impact because it takes into account the ways that these women are actively or collaterally betrayed and overlooked by men in power (A female reporter makes this point quite clearly to AJ, giving him a reason to directly confront Hart). It's the strongest through line in a movie that, otherwise, doesn't find an equally convincing one for its main story—that of Hart's clash with the press. It goes back and forth so many times—between seeing Hart's refusal to talk as righteousness and as stubbornness, as well as painting the news media as vultures and as legitimate truth-seekers—that the movie doesn't seem to have an opinion on any of this. That could be fine, but there's also the issue of how broadly everything is portrayed here. We're left without enough information to have an opinion, either. Each of these isolated stories is intriguing, but in trying to give a voice and a perspective to all of them, The Front Runner fails to give us one vital thing: the truth. It even try to give us its own interpretation of some form of the truth. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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