Dreadfully Boring

Best movie of this year hands down!

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Even a Brit like me knows exactly who these fictional characters are portraying from the start. Think all the actors major & minor deserve resounding applause if not accolades for their portrayals. The film does ask the question as to whether US democracy actually fulfils the ideal it pretends to aim for. The presidential elections are a prime example, you overthrow monarchy & aristocracy. Yet end up with the same old oligarchies - Kennedy's / Bush's / Clinton's. The winner is usually a populist, well that's democratic, but slightly demagogic. This guy, as lets face it you've never had a woman running the country, often uses presidential decrees to force his policy through, that my friends is what the Greeks called a tyrant. So as you can see, or the Greeks would, you've left democracy a long way back in this paragraph & probably history.

Mike Nichols presents a political satire PRIMARY COLORS, which came timely during Bill Clinton's infamous Lewinsky scandal and impeachment in 1998. So it might boost the publicity then, but 15 years later, when our memories fade, the film actually has weathered pretty good, narrating from a Black young novice Henry (Lester)'s eyes, who assists Governor Jack Stanton (Travolta)'s presidential campaign for the democrats, initially Henry thinks Jack is different from other politicians because he viscerally cares about adult literacy and dyslexia, but when he gets closer to him, the stain of Jack's personal life is far more reprehensible and the conniving political game is far too scurvy for an idealist like him. With a light touch, the film sets its campaign process in a vibrant tempo, benignly portrays Jack as a zestful candidate who canvasses and panders to his voters with great facility (through the different connotations from his body gestures and a memorable slapstick cameo from Allison Janney) in spite of the relatively youthful and uninitiated team. Then when Jack's wife Susan (Thompson) comes into the scene, the placid surface cannot dissemble the cracks beneath as soon as we detect Jack's philandering nature. A sex scandal is well-expected, which invites the troubleshooter Libby (an open lesbian and a close friend of Jack and Susan since college), plays by a fiery Kathy Bates, a devil-may-care warrior can track down any sources and break them, Bates is well-deserved for this hard-earned Oscar nominated performance, her wrangle with Jack and Susan about the integrity she cannot forsake is purely magnificent. Emma Thompson is perpetually excellent, especially under Nichol's guidance, a perfect wife behind a successful man mode is such a cinch for her and she nails it with much more nuances to accentuate her vulnerability and snobbishness. As for Travolta, it has hitherto been his last decent offer (if one can count out his droll transvestite transformation in HAIRSPRAY 2007, 8/10), underneath his cordial impression, his true color does not betray easily even in the hardest times, maybe that's why makes him a successful politician. And Adrian Lester is the audience's proxy, a wide-eyed enthusiast undergoes the tidal wave throughout, and an adamant observer which cogently influences his sea change in altitude through the screen to the viewers, bookends with the ending's artificial vagueness which also corresponds with the beginning, the same handshakes, different undertones. Forget about its reality allusions if you can, PRIMARY COLORS qualifies itself as a better-than- expected dissection of what politicians are made of, we are all characters with flaws, sometimes moralities and political expertise should be discriminated in order to see through the murky smoke screen and select the credential-ed ones instead of stalking horses. As for most of us, the most substantial message is that there is no win-win situation or whatsoever in the political composition.

The only thing separating the "fallen" Politician from those who have not is that they got CAUGHT, in something undeniable and the unseating ensues with not much surprise but always some interest. The hypocrisy is rampant and if you cracked open any of them you are likely to find something revealing, some kind of Human fault or weakness or Sin.Corruption, immorality, and illegality are prevalent if not rampant in the ranks of the elected "public servants". From Bill Clinton to Strom Thurmond we see glimpses if not revelations of such behavior. This slightly satirical look inside is quite a droll and tame affair. It is engaging enough if not fully functional and satisfying. It is all handled by professional Movie Makers and is slick, but not sultry in its portrayal of behind the bedroom door exposures of front runners and back stabbers. There is not one sex scene in this Film about sexual responsibility and consequences and it is better for it.It makes its other points, quite well, on how to deal with the implications of being outed, both by the Party and Candidates involved and their opponents. The Movie is insightful but not really intense or deep and is more of an entertainment than Political Science.

Primary Colors (1998)This starts off really great, and gets the flavor of a real campaign, without too much Hollywood hype (campaigns have their own kind of falseness, which is played up here). John Travolta not only hits it just right as a feeling and determined candidate, he also nails Bill Clinton pretty well, too. I don't suppose Emma Thompson is supposed to match Hillary quite as well, but she's a perfect running mate, and throw in Billy Bob (Thornton) as a sidekick and you have a really solid working trio. But it doesn't quite keep the focus or momentum, or honesty, of the opening scenes. Or humor, sometimes. (This is a comedy, by the way, and director Mike Nichols knows comedy, as does his screenwriter and longtime collaborator, Elaine May. They used to do stand up comedy together in the 1950s!) What begins as a kind of revelation and interior exploration digresses into more and more clichés of what campaigns do, and what they have to do (sleaze wise) to succeed. We know this stuff. It isn't the facts that enchant us, it's the exceptions to the facts, and it's the nuances between them. It never quite flags, though twenty minutes less screen time sounded good by the end. And Travolta and Thompson hold up their roles consistently.The real saving grace in the second half is the bursting on the scene of Kathy Bates, who is herself at her best. It might be the best Kathy Bates Kathy Bates has ever done, including some impassioned, tearful stuff. The opposing candidate is remarkably convincing--you even want to vote for him--played by Larry Hagman. On the other hand, the young clerk and campaign manager Adrian Lester is a bit too restrained and dull to make him even noticeable.Nichols is best when he gets two or three or four people interacting as real people, with flaws and intensity and passion (as in "The Graduate" and "Closer"). And those moments here are terrific, and sometimes hilarious, and make the rest easily worthwhile.