THE CONTENDER (DreamWorks) Starring: Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, William Petersen, Sam Elliott. Screenplay: Rod Lurie. Producers: Marc Frydman, Douglas Urbanski, Willi Baer and James Spies. Director: Rod Lurie. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, sexual situations, adult themes) Running Time: 125 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
After a decade as a film critic, Rod Lurie has apparently decided that not only does he really want to direct, he also really wants to be President. Lurie made his debut behind the camera earlier this year with DETERRENCE, a political thriller about the President trying to manage an international crisis while snowbound in Colorado. The Commander-in-Chief is once again front and center in THE CONTENDER, suggesting that Lurie may have been missing his calling as a journalist. Instead of aspiring to be the next John Ford, he may really be aspiring to be the next John McLaughlin.
It's clear that Lurie has a lot of interesting things say about contemporary American politics on a national level. It's equally clear that he still has a few things to learn about turning those things into smoothly satisfying film stories. THE CONTENDER is set sometime in the near future, during the second term of the Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) administration. The sitting Vice President has recently died in office, leaving Evans with a tough political choice. He wants to name a woman to the post to secure his legacy, and he wants Ohio Senator Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) to be that woman. Unfortunately, he faces opposition in the person of Sheldon Runyon (Gary Oldman), the Congressman who will chair the confirmation hearings. Runyon is opposed to Hanson's nomination to begin with, but he finds ammunition for his opposition when evidence appears suggesting sexual indiscretions from Hanson's youth. And while Runyon plants the seeds of public suspicion, Hanson refuses to comment on the issue in any way.
Questions regarding the pertinence of private life to public service have certainly been part of the political landscape in recent years, making THE CONTENDER's subject matter timely food for thought. Lurie hammers the willingness of politicians to expose every skeleton in an opponent's closet, and turns Hanson's refusal to comment on the accusations against her into an expression of contempt for the fact that the subject has even been raised. Oldman makes for a superb antagonist as the cutthroat Runyon, whose motivations are always swaying between genuine conviction that Hanson isn't ready for the job and retribution for earlier political losses to the President. There are fine moments exploring the slippery slopes on which politicians walk in order to gain power, none more effective than a scene in which Hanson -- armed with information that could allow her to make an effective personal attack on Runyon -- is forced to decide whether or not to use it. The excruciatingly long silence in that scene says more about the tension between principle and expedience than any line of dialogue.
That's also one of the few moments in THE CONTENDER when Lurie nails the timing of a scene. Throughout the film, there's a sense that virtually every scene is about a minute too short, that virtually every character or sub-plot has been short-changed in some fashion. Crucial relationships -- between Hanson and her father (Philip Baker Hall), a former governor; between another potential candidate for the Vice Presidency (William Petersen) and his ambitious wife -- never develop a rich enough context for their inclusion to be effective. Hanson herself remains enigmatic through much of the film, robbing the film of a real protagonist for the audience to embrace. And Lurie sticks too closely to the insider wheelings and dealings, never venturing into the realm of public opinion to explore how scandals affect the public. THE CONTENDER has the scope of an epic political drama without enough of the detail.
Fortunately for Lurie, he scores several points for detail with Jeff Bridges' performance as President Evans. Plenty of actors have essayed portrayals of American Presidents with an emphasis either on sheer authoritative presence or flawed humanity. Bridges nails both, switching from genial charm to icy political determination in the blink of an eye. He also gets the film's best running joke, as Evans attempts to stump his kitchen staff with off-beat menu requests. It's a near-perfect piece of film acting, capturing every one of a modern Chief Executive's many faces; he even gives a kick to the obligatory climactic preachy-speechy. That's the only bit of greatness THE CONTENDER can muster, however; it's otherwise a merely solid piece of drama. Perhaps next time around, Rod Lurie will pick up a few lessons from Bridges on putting all the pieces together around a persuasive ideological core. Such is the stuff of a great leader, whether behind the camera, or behind the desk in the Oval Office.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 presidential vices: 7.
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