Movie Review: The Front Runner

The Front Runner *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Jason Reitman.

Written by: Matt Bai & Jay Carson & Jason Reitman based on the book by Bai.

Starring: Hugh Jackman (Gary Hart), Vera Farmiga (Lee Hart), Molly Ephraim (Irene Kelly), Kaitlyn Dever (Andrea Hart), Jenna Kanell (Ginny Terzano), Sara Paxton (Donna Rice), J.K. Simmons (Bill Dixon), Courtney Ford (Lynn Armandt), Ari Graynor (Ann Devroy), Bill Burr (George McGovern), Alfred Molina (Ben Bradlee), Chris Coy (Kevin Sweeney), Kevin Pollak (Bob Martindale), Toby Huss (Billy Broadhurst), John Bedford Lloyd (David Broder), Mike Judge (Jim Savage), Tommy Dewey (John Emerson), Josh Brener (Doug Wilson), Jennifer Landon (Ann McDaniel), Mark O'Brien (Billy Shore), Oliver Cooper  (Joe Trippi), Mamoudou Athie (A.J. Parker), Spencer Garrett (Bob Woodward), Alex Karpovsky (Mike Stratton), Joe Chrest (Ira Wyman), Evan Castelloe (John Hart), Jonny Pasvolsky (Steve Dunleavy), Randy Havens (Alan Weinberg), Steve Zissis (Tom Fiedler), Steve Coulter (Bob Kaiser), Nyasha Hatendi (Roy Valentine).

 

Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner is about the brief Presidential campaign by Gary Hart in 1988. When he entered the race, he was the presumptive Democratic nominee, and was polling 12 points ahead of Vice President George Bush for the victory. Three weeks later, his campaign was over – brought down by a scandal because Hart couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. Reitman’s film argues that this was the beginning of the end for Presidential politics – the moment when the media started acting like the tabloids did for celebrities, but this time for politicians. In previous generations, no one in the media would even think to report on a politician having an affair – but from then on, they all would. The Front Runner tries very hard to be fair and balanced – not really arguing whether or this is, or really anything in the film, is a good or bad thing. It allows all the different characters to air their viewpoints, and essentially throws it all back at the viewer to sort out. This approach has its pluses and its minuses – the biggest of the latter is probably that even after watching the movie, I have no real idea who Gary Hart was, or what he stood for. Was a he principled guy, brought down by a zealous media, or was he a cynical politician, hiding behind principles to try and deflect from his own failings. Both?

 

In the film, Hart is played by Hugh Jackman, who does a good job at playing the public face of Hart – the man capable of delivering good speeches, firing back at his opponents in debates, and looking and sounding like someone you would want to be President. The film doesn’t really give Jackman a chance to do anything else though – and I think this is by design. Even though we see him aboard the boat in Miami – the Monkey Business – where he’ll meet the “girl” that would be his downfall, Reitman cuts the sound out of their conversation out before it gets going. The film isn’t interested in Hart as a person – it’s much more interested in how everything came crashing down.

 

The film then, is really an ensemble piece – it wants to be something akin to The Candidate (1972) or Primary Colors (1998), as directed by Robert Altman – going so far as to try and capture Altman’s trademarked overlapping dialogue in the large scenes where staffers – either campaign or newspaper – are arguing with each other. After a brief prologue in 1984 – where Hart came in second for the nomination – the movie thrusts us into 1988, just as Hart is announcing his run. By his side is his wife, Lee (Vera Farmiga) – although their relationship is clearly strained (this will not be his first affair). His campaign manager is Bill Dixon (JK Simmons), a profane, old school manager who is gifted at wrangling his young staff behind Hart – but also smart enough to see what’s going to happen to Hart before he does.

 

The scandal gets started with an anonymous tip to the Miami Herald – that says they know someone who is flying up to Washington that weekend, because they’re having an affair with Hart. A couple of reporters for the paper decide to stake out Hart’s Washington brownstone to try and get the dirt. What they get may not be the slam dunk they hoped for, but it’s more than enough to get the ball rolling. Even the venerable Washington Post eventually gets sucked in – much to the young Post reporter’s assigned to the job chagrin.

 

I do think The Front Runner does several very smart things. You can tell that this is a movie made in the #MeToo era, as the film (rightfully) doesn’t just jettisoned “the girl”, Donna Rice (Sara Paxton) aside as an afterthought like happens so often in stories like this. She is portrayed as a smart, if naïve, young woman who didn’t intend for any of this to happen, but is now caught up in it anyway. One of the harshest scenes in the movie is when the Hart staffer who has befriended Donna, for the purpose of keeping her quiet, essentially throws her to the wolves at the Miami airport – knowing precisely what will happen to her, even as she assured her things would be okay. Another scene as the Post reporter assigned to Hart complaining about being a tabloid to a female co-worker, who makes the case of precisely why it does matter to the American people what Hart did – that he is a man with power, and with that power comes responsibility, and it matter if he uses that power to sleep with younger women.

 

And the film is, overall, very entertaining. You’d be hard pressed to find a more talented ensemble cast than the one Reitman has gathered for the film – and while many (if not most) of the cast is underutilized, it still helps to make all their scenes work as well as they do. The film runs just under two hours, and to be honest, feels a little too rushed. Ultimately, this may be a film that would have benefitted by be turned into an 8 hours’ miniseries, to better capture the ins and outs of what happened, and to flesh out the characters – especially Hart. As played by Jackman, he remains an interesting enigma. You want to know why, when the Presidency was within his grasp, he would essentially throw it all away for an affair. How someone so gifted at certain aspects of being a politician, could be so blind to what was going to happen. I don’t really know if Hart’s campaign really was the one that changed American politics forever – or whether it was just another signpost on the road to hell. But it is a fascinating story – and while The Front Runner is a decent movie, I think there’s a great one to be made here. Reitman and company just didn’t quite find it.