Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by mr grits (A) on January 02, 2011 at 09:41:49

I chuckled and cackled through most of this "drama" about Tony Blair's and Bill Clinton's 'special relationship'. Written from a Brit POV there was plenty of humor and irony surrounding Bubba's political craftsmanship, IQ, and Monica even though the film was about Tony's rise to power bringing Labor government back in after 17 years of Tory rule.

Michael Sheen reprises Blair with mostly shy and retiring smiles while Clinton (Dennis Quaid) is the forceful and dominant leader of their political partnership.

The film begins with Tony's call to visit Bill in the WH which was somewhat unprecedented. Bill, in affect, treated Tony as if he were already PM of the UK. Of course, Tony was in total awe of Bill in the beginning--until the Monica thing emerged.

There is so much inside humor about the Lewinsky affair it is hard not to guffaw through half the film. The scenes where Bubba is just flat out lying to Hillary about the non-affair, the news commentary about his 5 1/2 inches with a bend in the middle (rushing the Blair children out of the room while BBC reports on the tele), hearing Cherie's sly comments, seeing Hillary's disillusionment, and watching Bill flim-flam on television about it all serve up some good chuckles since we know the truth all along.

Then the film gets into Tony's personal crusade about Kosovo and his call for ground troops to stop the genocide. He is met with great resistance and a Clinton's advisors comments: "How many Americans are you willing to kill to get this done?" which prompts Tony to make a rousing speech in Chicago that far overshadows Clinton's rhetoric and makes him more popular than Bill.

There are so many Bubbaisms that this film can't be missed: Bill constantly eating, always hanging up on Tony before the conversations were over, and a classic line to Hillary: "You know Cherie is from Liverpool. That's the Arkansas of England".

But, to me, the best line was between Tony's two closest advisors while flying to America right after the Lewinsky affair broke. They were discussing whether oral sex was actually sex. Cherie was appalled that would even be a question when one advisor said, "His emergency response team found a Biblical reference in Ecclesiastes that alludes to this." The other advisor, in awe, "God they're GOOD!"

This movie, from a historical view point, is good fun. It's entertaining without being damning as nothing but the truth was used for the screenplay. See it.


Grits uber alles.