The Contender film review

certificate_15

THE CONTENDER

Presidential dilemmas have been a perennial source of inspiration for Hollywood. Some are dealt with reverentially and accurately, as if by the Wall Street Journal, others take the more flippant National Enquirer approach. The Contender falls somewhere in between.

Written and directed by Rod Lurie, the film is a thoroughly absorbing political melodrama, offering a compelling indictment of the manipulation and corruption within Washington all doused with a liberal quota of sleaze and bombast.

When the Democratic vice president dies, President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) requires a replacement that will glide effortlessly through the confirmation process without tarnishing his legacy as well as provide a fitting successor. With the nomination pending the natural choice, Jack Hathaway, attempts to rescue a woman trapped in a car that plunges into a river he conveniently happens to be fishing in. His heroics appear to strengthen his chances, but despite his efforts the woman drowns, an outcome that prompts the president's adviser Kermit Newman (Sam Elliott) to discount Hathaway on the grounds they don't need another Chappaquidick.

This leaves the path clear for the attractive and seemingly virtuous Laine Hanson (Joan Allen), subject to the confirmation hearing, a normally rubberstamped formality. This time though it's a far more rigorous undertaking at the hands of the unscrupulous and vindictive Republican congressman Shelly Runyon, played with unctuous zest by a barely recognisable Oldman. When damning photos emerge seemingly of Hanson engaged in lewd sexual conduct during her college days, Runyon seizes the opportunity to sabotage her hopes and humiliate the woman he considers unworthy of the position, a position better suited to his old friend Hathaway.

President Evans, played with an engaging informality by Bridges, is an amalgam of the smooth and charming virtues of Kennedy and Clinton. His obsession with food is an amusing if thinly veiled metaphor for sex. The film cares little for the issues of state, preferring instead to revel in the more shameless aspects of its participants: namely deceipt, corruption, power and ego. The result is an engrossing if at times overwrought drama played out by strong and vibrant characters. The performances, headed by Allen's restrained fortitude, are all sharp with Allen, Oldman and Bridges all garnering the whispered sounds of Oscar.