★★★★☆
6 November 2018
A movie review of THE FRONT RUNNER. |
“The world changes when young people give a damn,” Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman)
Brexit and Trump. We are currently saturated with politics. Have we got to this situation because too many voters over decades were complacent/selfish/foolish? THE FRONT RUNNER, unfolding in the 1980s, hones in on a sea change that offers one examination of the modern world: Politics as entertainment. As media blood sport. THE FRONT RUNNER is political tragedy. Are we going to see more of these pieces from Hollywood in the coming years? Contemporary films are perhaps too much to ask for in a daily news cycle barely able to keep up. More FRONT RUNNERs showcasing missed opportunities would be welcome.
Brexit and Trump. We are currently saturated with politics. Have we got to this situation because too many voters over decades were complacent/selfish/foolish? THE FRONT RUNNER, unfolding in the 1980s, hones in on a sea change that offers one examination of the modern world: Politics as entertainment. As media blood sport. THE FRONT RUNNER is political tragedy. Are we going to see more of these pieces from Hollywood in the coming years? Contemporary films are perhaps too much to ask for in a daily news cycle barely able to keep up. More FRONT RUNNERs showcasing missed opportunities would be welcome.
For those expecting THE WEST WING-levels of slickness, this is not that. The camerawork is distractingly jittery and claustrophobic. Even the opening single-take roam around the press corps, as campaign staff converse, begs for a pull back. Is the audience meant to feel the stifling intensity of the struggle to attain the title of President of the United States? It is a shame about the annoying look. After THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007), the antsy camera is distinctly stale.
However, the writing is top-notch. No jingoism. No sentimentality. No moral simplicity. THE FRONT RUNNER is a dissection of the implosion of a presidential political career in 1988, which has had a ripple effect to today. There are a myriad of sympathies. Can you say the dialogue is impressionistic? Muffled, overlapping, whispering, we have to concentrate.
Thirty years ago, candidate Senator Gary Hart is only 46 and had the overwhelming lead for the Democratic presidential nomination. The film shows how he lost. When we meet him, Hugh Jackman’s blockbuster charisma is tied to a verbal dexterity evincing progressiveness and intelligence. What might have been! *Sob* His campaign chief, Bill Dixon (J.K. Simmons), opines on Hart’s gift for untangling politics.
With surprising sophistication for a mainstream drama, few come away untarnished. When the credits roll, there is anguish at the squandering of the potential for the world to have been set on a more humane path.