I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Blistering performances.

This film is about Tony Blair and his working relationship with Bill Clinton during Blair's years as the British Prime Minister.Michael Sheen portrays Tony Blair in a confident manner, the differences in his character's radiance between the beginning and the end of the film is easily observable. Hope Davis deserves a special mention. I have always thought she looks like Hillary Clinton, and Hope Davis brilliantly portrays a strong, determined, and able lady that remarkably resembles Hillary Clinton.A political film may fall into the trap of becoming propaganda, but "The Special Relationship" does not feel anything like that. It portrays the mutual support between the two countries' leaders. It is a engaging story that is remarkably told and acted.

What can the average Briton say about Tony Blair ? Lots of things and none of them complimentary . A few months ago former Labour party leader Michael Foot died so we got the retrospective memoriam and one can't help feeling nostalgic for the very democratic society we had in Britain circa 1983 . You might not have agreed with Foot or Prime Minister Magaret Thatcher but you couldn't deny that both were driven by principles . Indeed included amongst the reportage of Michael Foot we saw him leading a march for the unemployed . Now hands up anyone who has ever seen any Senior figure from the Labour Party in the last twenty years even make the token gesture of being on the side of the proles ? Yeah I thought not . Blair was Prime Minister through default . Never one to miss the opportunity for a photo call or a sound bite he was very lucky to become party leader due to the death of John Smith , though he wasn't so lucky to become Prime Minister . Politics in Britain is very cyclical in that a government spends many years in power with the opposition getting voted in simply because they're not government party From the outset THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP paints Tony Blair in a subtle way . He comes across as some type of outsider who wants to be the most popular person in the room but doesn't know how to go about . Realists will state with more than a little cynicism that if that's the case Blair is in he wrong game , but to give Blair is due he had a damned good try . The film starts in 1992 where on a trip to Washington Blair is introduced to the American Democratic spin machine and is told in detail what voter demographic to target , Tellingly he's also told that crime weighs heavily in elections . No one honestly thought that during his tenure as shadow home secretary Blair thought up his sound bite catchphrase of " tough on crime - tough on the causes of crime " on his own and it's here it's revealed as being the invention of American spin doctors . Shows you how bad a politician he is if he has to travel over 3,000 miles to steal a sound bite off someone else Whilst never hitting upon out and out satire the subtle , somewhat cynical nature of THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP entirely rings true . Not only is Tony Blair wanting to be best friends with the USA he also wants to be best friends with everyone in Europe in general and the French in particular . He assures French President Jacques Chirac that " I've always been a European and will always remain a European " . Jump forward to May 1997 and Blair is taking congratulations from Chirac over the phone only for the call to be cancelled when President Clinton calls . What makes the scene so amusing is that Blair is crestfallen when he realises Clinton has him on hold . I'll say one thing about Blair and that is he's very forgiving . Most people would have held a grudge at this display of bad manners . That said however very few people spend their entire lives trying to be best friends with the most powerful man on the planet . What the film is very good at it is comparing the contrast between Blair and Clinton . Blair comes across as a rather weak personality but a brilliant politician where as Clinton comes across as a weak politician but having a forceful personality compensating for his character and political flaws What the film does rather badly - and it's a pretty big fault - is the motivation of the two leaders over Kosovo . Blair and Clinton had a difference of opinion over the conflict with the American President wanting to limit the war to air strikes while the British Prime Minister wanted to send a NATO ground force in to the province from the outset . But is this actually true ? If so why'd Blair suddenly turn in to a real life Russell Crowe character ? Were his motives genuine or was he just wanting to impress his best friend President Clinton . We've all seen the real life Tony Blair give Churchillian speeches about upholding international law and human rights but was he really being so principled ? One hopes when we get THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP 2 - BUSH AND BLAIR we get to see much more behind closed door scenes honestly explaining why Blair seemed to hang on to Bush's coat tails so tightly The cast as can be expected are very good . One can't help thinking what Michael Sheen would be like playing a fictional character . Imagine if Steven Moffat cast him as The Doctor in DOCTOR WHO . Would he be so good at playing someone from scratch ? He is certainly nothing less than brilliant playing diverse real life characters such as Kenneth Williams , David Frost and Brian Clough and it'd be very very uncharitable to state he seems to have played Tony Blair more often than Tony Blair did . Denis Quaid is an revelation as Bill Clinton and who can understand why Clinton got away with so much during his tenure of President by sheer force of personality alone . It's a very good on form cast who rise above the sometimes underwritten motives of their characters

Following the "secret" story of his election (The Deal) and his first major crisis (The Queen), writer Peter Morgan ends his unofficial Tony Blair trilogy with one of the most famous aspects of the man's political career: his friendship with US President Bill Clinton, and the hopes and problems that came with it.The film, made as a co-production between BBC and HBO (where it premiered in May 2010, though it has been picked up for theatrical release in other countries), starts in slightly familiar territory, showing us Blair (played, once again, by Michael Sheen) before he was elected, and the same goes for Clinton (Dennis Quaid), who immediately befriends the British politician on the grounds that they have a lot in common: young (politically speaking), ambitious and eager to make a difference in their respective governments. Once both men are in office, the cooperation goes very smoothly, prompting the media - and the two friends themselves - to talk about a "special relationship" between America and Great Britain. However, like most relationships, it has to face some hard times, most notably the conflict in the former Jugoslavia and, on a more private front, the Lewinsky scandal, which drives a wedge between Bill and Hillary (Leslie Hope) and Tony and Cherie (Helen McCrory, reprising her role from The Queen).Like most of Morgan's work, The Special Relationship puts a lot of emphasis on character and performance, especially Sheen who, by now, wears Blair's clothes and mannerisms like they were a second skin, a fact that becomes more evident when archive footage is used to show the man's first encounter with a very different Commander in Chief (one George W. Bush), and he's ably assisted by the excellent Quaid who, having already played a President in American Dreamz, gets past the not-so-perfect physical resemblance between himself and the real Clinton to deliver a fully formed portrayal of a flawed, but very charismatic individual. On the female side, Hope is the usual guarantee of quality, while McCrory is a bit of a revelation, taking advantage of the increase in screen-time she has been granted compared to The Queen.That said, the film is probably the least dramatically poignant of the trilogy. Maybe it has to do with the change in the director's chair (goodbye Stephen Frears, hello Richard Loncraine), but the real reason is the excessive familiarity of the material: whereas The Deal and The Queen dealt with the unseen (and largely fictionalized) side of their respective stories, The Special Relationship centers around a piece of Anglo-American history that has been widely covered multiple times, meaning there's very little on screen, no matter how entertaining, that people haven't heard of before.Overall, a slightly underwhelming but consistently amusing look at the workings of English and US politics, propelled by a flawless double act and some Aaron Sorkin-like writing. If this is the last we'll see of Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, one thing is clear: it's been a very pleasant experience.7,5/10

It seems movie reviews of this work are subject to the politics and realities of the event rather than the recreation and acting of this surprisingly good story. Dennis Quaid, who I've never seen do anything above mediocre work usually just mirroring himself, was just outstanding as Bill Clinton. I think it is by far his best piece of acting to date. Equally so for Michael Sheen who I am less familiar with. Both men did a good job of presenting the personalities, complexities and subtleties of each leader. "Hillary Clinton" didn't just look the part - she was Hillary (at least what we know of her). Bill was presented as the smart politician sleaze ball and failed leader of lost promise that he was. Tony Blair is presented as both a promising leader and sympathetic character doomed to eventual destruction. The story was able to project all this in its short 90 minutes. On top of that it was educational to boot. Good job!