SCREENINGS & MEANINGS

By Gerald Schmitz

Election follies in the ‘excited’ States of America

The Campaign
(U.S. 2012)
Knife Fight
( U.S. 2012)

Today is Halloween and what an onslaught of political tricks and treats there has already been in America’s multi-billion dollar 57th presidential campaign with less than a week to go. With the 24/7 spin cycle in overdrive could there be any skeletons left in closets to haunt the hustings? What kind of man or woman would want to be subjected to this electoral circus and what does that say about the world’s richest democracy and the people it chooses to lead?

Going behind the scenes to see what makes politicians tick can produce top-notch drama. Last fall it was The Ides of March in which an idealistic hotshot top adviser to a flawed presidential contender loses his political virginity in a cutthroat environment. Bravo’s excellent Sunday-night television series Political Animals that debuted this summer centred on a strong-willed female character — a current U.S. secretary of state, ex-wife of a philandering former Democratic president, who has to decide if she will contest again for the top job (shades of the Clintons?). Fingers crossed that this saga will get renewed for a longer run.

In the meantime I’m still impatiently awaiting a theatrical release for Knife Fight, a terrific film that premiered during the Tribeca festival in April. Cutting close to the bone in any political season, it seems especially timely now. But first I want to issue a warning about how not to show up the political process.

I refer in particular to The Campaign, a dreadfully lame and inane lampoon of American politics dumped in theatres during the August doldrums and still running having grossed almost $90 million. Gross indeed. An Indiewire review by Gabe Toro giving it a score of zero on metacritic.com called it “laughless,” “cowardly” and “insidiously stupid.”
Will Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a ludicrously boorish, lecherous and conceited Republican congressman “taking care of business” while presuming re-election as a foregone conclusion. Zach Galifianakis is Marty Huggins, a nerdy effeminate loser who, although he seems good-hearted with a dumpy wife and two kids, is set up as a gullible object of ridicule. Galifianakis affects a high-pitched falsetto, mincing mannerisms and stereotyped southern accent. When Brady’s big-money backroom backers, who are really in charge, decide to switch horses for avaricious reasons having to do with Trojan horse Chinese investment, they choose Huggins to mount a challenge and be their replacement stooge.

In the ensuing contest no attack tactic is too low, duplicity reigns, voters are treated as dupes and imbeciles to be manipulated by senseless slogans (Brady’s is “Family, Jesus, Freedom”). Throw in anti-Chinese xenophobia to the mix of trash-talk absurdity. It’s all a tawdry charade with the bogeyman tycoons supposedly exposed in the end. There are elements of legitimate satire that could have been pulled from the worst excesses of an American political system which many doubt is working to serve them. Unfortunately The Campaign blows it by being mainly an excuse for gutter-level gags, hyper-sexual innuendo and foul behaviours. Groan. Crude and lewd, it just leaves a bad taste.

In contrast to that outrageous descent, Knife Fight strives to achieve veracity in its sharply drawn depiction of the sophisticated political operations and stratagems that lie behind public officials’ campaigns and careers. Director Bill Guttentag originally had planned a documentary but decided he would never get sufficient access to be “inside the room” where the key decisions get made. Instead he teamed up with consultant Chris Lehane, a counsel to former president Clinton and press secretary to former vice-president Gore during his presidential run, who became a co-writer and co-producer on the film. Lehane had once compared the last weeks of such campaigns to a “knife fight in a telephone booth.” Hence the title.

At the centre of the action is high-powered political operator for hire Paul Turner (Rob Lowe), a true believer in what he does who, as he bluntly puts it, is “in the business of helping people who can win.” And sometimes, “to win in politics you have to be the person who brings a gun to a knife fight.” From his San Francisco base, Paul is also in the business of making sure that his clients hold on to office and their reputations by managing the inevitable crises of public life and the fishbowl scrutiny of a scandal-hungry media. Himself a media hound and master of spin as well as Blackberry addict, Paul is in bed, figuratively and literally, with an ambitious local news anchor, Peaches O’Dell (Julie Bowen). Both are skilled in the arts of using others for their own ends.

In this non-stop operation the politicians he represents have human drives and weaknesses like the rest of us, perhaps a little more so. Among his clients is a Kentucky governor, Larry Lincoln Becker (Eric McCormack), who is accused of having sex with a young aide. Another is a California senator and former war hero, Stephen (David Harbour), who is being blackmailed by a seductress masseuse. Sticky moral issues arise in determining how to contain the damage or shift the story and go on the offensive. In the case of Governor Becker, Paul’s advice to destroy the credibility of the young woman in question is challenged by Becker’s wife who can live with his peccadillos but won’t be party to protecting him by dragging an innocent person through the mud.

While Paul thinks of himself as a good guy, he doesn’t have many scruples about taking the low road if necessary. He’s supported by a crack trio of assistants: Kerstin (Jamie Chung), a young idealistic lesbian; Jimmy (David Havok), a communications specialist who’s an ace producer of campaign commercials; and not least Dimitris (Richard Schiff), an old-hand “researcher” whose specialty is digging up quality dirt on the opposition. They operate on the WWMD (What would Machiavelli do?) principle.

Then along comes an unconventional candidate from outside the political game. Penelope (Carrie-Anne Moss) is a doctor and single mother who runs a free clinic in the Bay area and is passionate about serving people. Persuaded that she can do more good by seeking public office, she enters the race to be California’s next governor. After initially dismissing that as a quixotic no-hope quest, Paul is won over by her charisma and genuine sense of purpose which seems to rekindle his own. He and his team throw themselves into a populist effort to get her elected that would gladden the heart of any Hollywood liberal Democrat. Of course, they still play to win even if that means resorting to less than honest tactics of which the candidate may be unaware.

Knife Fight benefits from an able ensemble cast and well-drawn scenarios that crackle with sharp dialogue. Rob Lowe as Paul gives a fine performance that recalls his role as a California senator who runs for governor on the television series Brothers and Sisters.

That said, not everything works. The first part encourages a too cynical interpretation. With operators like Paul pulling strings, how can we believe or trust any politician no matter how noble the end that justifies the means? The second part of the movie focused on Penelope’s campaign expects us to suspend our disbelief and accept a conclusion that is too good to be true. It won’t wash (which may be why Indiewire’s Gabe Toro attacked the result almost as much as the execrable The Campaign).

I happened to be near ultra-political filmmaker Michael Moore in the Tribeca press screening and afterward he told me he would have changed a pivotal plot device to make the ending more credible. After all, even nice girls get hurt when their backers play with knives.

Schmitz is an ambassador member of the Canadian Film Institute. He writes from Ottawa.