THE CONTENDER

I’m always up for a film about US politics and this one didn’t disappoint.

How could it, with Jeff Bridges playing the President?  

He’s Democrat President Evans and he’s nominating a new Vice President after the death of the previous occupant.  He could choose Governor Hathaway who has just heroically tried to save a woman whose car crashed into a river, but instead he opts for a woman, Senator Hanson (Joan Allen).

She’s clearly competent but that's irrelevant  - he just wants to be the first President to nominate a female VP.

Her main obstacle to becoming VP is Republican Senator Runyon (Gary Oldman) who chairs the relevant committee and who wants to stop her nomination at all costs.

He is over the moon therefore when a story surfaces on the internet (complete with graphic photos) alleging that Hanson while at college participated in some kind of drunken sex orgy as part of a sorority initiation.

Hanson refuses to answer questions regarding the story, on the principle that her private life is her own business.  She sticks to this position even when the President offers to make public some evidence that he has unearthed that totally exonerates her.  

As she points out, if he does this then it implies the questions were legitimate ones to ask her in the first place.

It seems that her high minded stubbornness will cost her the nomination but in a dramatic finale Evans delivers a rousing speech to Congress backing her.

Inevitably, misogyny is an issue throughout.  Although Runyon has various reasons for objecting to Hanson’s nomination it’s pretty clear that her gender is a problem for him.  

And if Hanson were a man how interested would the media be in her sexual history?

But the fact that she turns out not to have much of a history to defend is disappointing in that I was looking forward to her making a robust defence of her right to sleep around as much as she likes.

In fact her lack of feistiness in general is a drawback in that we never quite get the fireworks between Hanson and Runyon that might have been expected.

There are a few missteps in what otherwise is a well written and acted drama.

There's some clunky use of music during Hanson's closing speech to the committee and during the President's speech to Congress.

There's a running joke about the President's ability to order any food that takes his fancy, which outstays its welcome and which seems out of place tonally.

And I wasn't convinced that Christian Slater's ambitious Congressman adds much to proceedings.

Worst of all, the business of Hathaway paying a woman to drive a car into the river so that he can play the hero and save her, is ludicrous.

Nevertheless I found lots to enjoy, especially the quality of the dialogue and of the acting by the three leads.

RATING: ✓ Cheers