DAVE. Directed by Ivan Reitman; written by Gary Ross; produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Ivan Reitman for Warner Bros. Starring Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Frank Langella. Rated PG-13.
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Somewhere along the branches of their family trees, Kevin Kline and Jimmy Stewart just have to be related. How else could Kline be so perfect in this Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the '90's?
In this version, our hero, Dave, reaches the corridors of power not through election, but through skullduggery. He looks just like President Mitchell, you see. (Mitchell is also played by Kline.) So when the real President wants to duck out of an official appearance to make a (very) unofficial one in a secretary's bed, Dave fills in for him. Unfortunately, for Mitchell at least, the unofficial duties prove strenuous enough to bring on a serious stroke.
Rather than let the constitution take its course and the Vice-President (nicely underplayed by Ben Kingsley) take power, sinister chief of staff Bob Alexander (Langella) decides to extend Dave's impersonation gig indefinitely.
Nicely set up, with a minimum of convolution and confusion (which is pretty amazing considering how complicated it is) this wildly wacky premise plays out to a neat conclusion in a largely believable, and mostly quite entertaining, fashion.
Kline deserves most of the praise for the movie's success, by making his character so appealing and down-to-earth. I've always been a big fan of Kline's, though not always happy with his choice of roles (the awful I Love You to Death comes to mind, unfortunately). Here he has made up for all previous errors, however, with a character perfectly suited to his talents.
The supporting cast is also first-rate, especially Weaver as an activist First Lady and Langella, who makes a wonderfully hiss-able villain. And the cast list is swelled with dozens of cameo appearances by real politicians and media stars. My favorite is Oliver Stone (director of JFK) espousing a Mitchell conspiracy theory on Larry King's talk show. The political savvy and real-world connection that the cameos represent is worked through the whole script and gives Dave an extra entertainment dimension. For instance, did you catch the Haldeman/Haig nuance in Alexander's name?
When Dave decides to act really Presidential, and do things that need doing, the movie bogs down a little, at least on the comedy front. The last half is somewhat lacking in laughs. But that is when the ghost of Mr. Smith starts to haunt the movie, although quite pleasantly. And even the most cynical of us will enjoy seeing, however fictional, a happy ending to a Washington story.
May 19, 1993