THE MICHAEL DOUGLAS FAN PAGE
FILM REVIEWS
Review of "The American
President"
By REMINGTON DAHL
The Remington Review
The American President is a sassy romantic comedy that takes place at 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue. Rob Reiner’s film updates Tracy-Hepburn type shenannigans with surprisingly
smart results.
White House widower Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) and his high school daughter have
been without the First Lady for three years. Aids worry when the President becomes smitten
with liberal envirionmental lobbyist Sydney Wade (Annette Bening) just as they’re
gearing up for election year.
The President was already in trouble after promising Wade’s organization a 20%
decrease in fossil fuels emissions standards while having congressional support only for a
10% reduction. But when he asks Wade to be his date at a welcoming ball for the new
president of France, Republican rival Robert Rumson (Richard Dreyfus) raises moral issues.
Presidential bachelor Woodrow Wilson actually dated while in office, but that was before
TV. President Shepherd must keep his legislative promises and a budding romance alive
while fending off Senator Rumson’s televised attacks.
The American President has a uniformly excellent cast, though Martin Sheen as the
president’s chief of staff is most impressive. Michael J. Fox is perfectly cast as a
parody of Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos, while a fretting pollster played by David
Paymer mirrors the Clinton administration’s Stanley Greenberg. And Douglas and Bening
have never been better.
Reiner’s movie is unabashedly pro-Democrat, which serves him well most of the time.
By taking a stand, Reiner and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin are able to create realistic
meetings between the president and his staff, which many films (including Frank
Capra’s classic Washington D.C. pictures) don’t achieve due to an interest in
not offending anyone.
The climactic State of the Union speech, on the other hand, is an unnecessary liberal
sermon that drenches the finish in a syrupy coating.
Small complaint for a very satisfying movie. (Rated PG-13.)
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