Sidney Lumet on the American political scene, coming at it from a slightly new angle, shifting the spotlight to illuminate a formerly shadowed nook of it: the anonymous groomer behind the public candidate. On the pretense of enlightening the benighted, Lumet can content himself with, or console himself for, any amount of overstatement, misstatement, shallowness, and glibness, plus as much commercially motivated skullduggery (if not also sexuality) as a Harold Robbins or Arthur Hailey. The blissful simplemindedness of this crash course in Political Cynicism, sure to be an eye-opener for anyone hitherto with his head in the sand, will be excused under the cover of public service. Similarly with the disingenuous naiveté of its Capra-esque plot twist: the belated entry into the Ohio senatorial race, and the eventual backing of him by the previously amoral protagonist, of a boyish, bashful, stammeringly unpolished, Kennedy-coiffed Oberlin College professor, the students' pet, who actually equates himself with Capra's Mr. Smith (who went to Washington). Of course, Lumet is not going to trade cynicism for naiveté to the extent of letting this dark horse run away with the race, merely to the extent of allowing him a "surprising" second-place in a three-man field. Could this be the first, fawnlike step in a new direction? "Something human came into this race, that wasn't slick and pre-packaged ...." The ball, Lumet is trying to tell you in his urgent and urging way, is in your court -- a nice fat lob about four feet from the net. With Richard Gere, Julie Christie, and Gene Hackman. (1986) — Duncan Shepherd
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