# Contender, The (2000)

### reviewed by
Chad Polenz

    The Contender

Starring: Joan Allen (Senator Laine Hanson); Gary Oldman (Congressman Shelly Runyon); Jeff Bridges (President Jackson Evans); Sam Elliot (Kermit Newman); produced by Willi Bar, Marc Frydman, James Spies, Douglas Urbanski; written and directed by Rod Lurie.

Movies that are manipulative, formulated, preachy, melodramatic and have twist endings usually don't appeal to either critics or audiences. Yet here I am writing my review of "The Contender," a political thriller which could be described as all those traits and more, about to give it a positive recommendation when ordinarily I would not. This is one of those "exception to the rule" movies that's smart and authentic and you don't feel you're being pandered to. Think of it as a Tom Clancy thriller where words are the weapons and the media spotlight is the battlefield.

Joan Allen stars as Laine Hanson, a democratic senator from Ohio who has been selected by President Jackson Evans to fill the vacancy left by the death of the vice president. Hanson's a patchwork assemblage of so many politicians in Washington today: she's a Harvard graduate; the daughter of a former governor; her husband is her top advisor who also has a history of political experience; she's every bit as hip and trendy as Hillary Clinton and when she speaks she's charismatic and believable.

We're not immediately provided with the details of Hanson's political ideals, just three basic things: she's an atheist, she's pro-choice and she used to be a Republican but switched parties a few years ago. Maybe that's enough for you to get a sense of her character but I would have liked a little more. When the major players begin to discuss why she's been selected as the top VP contender and ramble off jargon about how she's not too liberal but not conservative enough (and the other fictional politicians she's compared to), it seems like a bit of a shortcut. But this is a movie whose characters are highly motivated by their image and it's clear what the filmmakers want her image to be. Hanson's not made out to be a saint or a revolutionary, she's just trying to make a living as a big-shot politician.

The yin to Hanson's yang is Congressman Shelly Runyon, a fairly conservative Republican from Illinois who appears to have a lot of tenure and seniority in the political world. He's a codger who doesn't like Hanson because she's pretty much the opposite of him in every way. Runyon heads a congressional committee who must interview and approve any vice presidential candidate before they can be sworn into office. His first choice was the governor of Virginia, a Bill Clinton look-a-like who failed to save a woman whose car crashed into a river where he happened to be fishing at the time (that scene opens the movie). President Evans also likes the governor but is afraid he'll be crucified by the committee as another Ted Kennedy. Runyon disagrees and will stop at nothing to prevent Hanson from becoming the vice president.

The first act of the film does an excellent job in setting up all these major characters and their motivations. None of them come across as pawns in the political circus but as real people with intuition. They're politicians who actually seem to care about the issues and how their constituents would want them to vote. For example, Christian Slater has a supporting role as a freshman congressman who tells President Evans right to his face and in all honesty he can't and won't play a political game because it's not in his heart. It's a cheesy scene because you know this a movie but at the same time it's refreshing to hear this from this type of character in this type of movie. Maybe it's one of those scenes thrown in just to impress Academy members, but nevertheless it works.

Around this point is where the film's major conflict comes in. It's a shocking revelation at first and thankfully it doesn't become the entire focal point of the plot once it's introduced. Runyon somehow manages to dig up the dirtiest of dirt of Hanson. It appears our upright citizen is not as squeaky-clean as you'd think (a politician with a corrupt past - what are the odds of that!?). To be blunt, she was Marilyn Chambers for a bunch of drunken frat boys doing the kinds of things to her you'd only see in a hardcore XXX porno movie. There's even some ambiguous photographs and witnesses to back it up. Things start to snowball for Hanson going from bad to worse mostly because she refuses to even respond to these accusations.

Do we want people serving in the highest level of government who were and could possibly still be sexual deviant?

Those are the kinds of questions Runyon asks aloud during his committee's grilling of Hanson. They're fair questions and I'm sure everyone who sees this film will have their own answers based on their personal politics. But that's not the questions writer and director Rod Lurie wants you to ask. Instead, substitute references to "people" with "women" and you've got one of the themes of this film. Lurie's depiction of the double standard is hard-hitting and provocative. It's an issue that's been on the feminist agenda for years (centuries even) and no matter how conservative you are you'll at least understand the rationale for trying to eliminate this form of hypocrisy.

However, an even more important theme is at work in "The Contender." It's the question the characters never ask - "Does what someone did in the past reflect their character today?" It's a similar idea to political views on the death penalty but since it's related to sex we comprehend it differently. Sometimes we can understand why a person might commit homicide but for most normal people it's difficult to understand why someone would want to be promiscuous.

In telling his story Lurie seems to come off as a liberal on the issues, and this is likely going to effect your enjoyment of the film. As a storyteller he's much more moderate. Runyon isn't made out to be an evil zealot and Hanson is far from being an innocent victim. His screenplay does a fine job in keeping everything as realistic as possible because anywhere else this film would be all about the games politicians play instead of philosophies behind the politics. For a rookie he's banged out an impression script and I have a feeling the Academy is going to take note of this.

If there's anything I could fault "The Contender" for it would be the direct references to the Monicagate scandal. At one point Hanson admits she voted for Clinton's impeachment but uses what will likely become the next "Show me the money"-like catchphrase: "Responsible but not guilty." If Lurie wants this film to be a show of support for Clinton and a message that the attempt to impeachment was unnecessary he should have been more subtle.

I also take issue with some scenes in which there's a "great speech" made by either Hanson or Evans about "The church of democracy" and "traitors among us" complete with the sappy orchestra music and intense mood. As much as I like the characters and thought the themes were powerful the use of this technique seems more like kissing-up to the Academy than honest filmmaking.

The ending is surprising because a lot of answers are provided. Whether they work and whether they were needed at all is certainly open to interpretation. Maybe it's a bit too Hollywood in some aspects but the fact it could still be surprising after all that has happened is a form of quiet brilliance.

In glancing over some reviews of this film by professional critics I noticed it's either praised mightily or harshly scorned. I am even more surprised to see a lot of bashing of this film on the Internet. That just means "The Contender" is going to be remembered as a pretty controversial film in the ranks of "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover" and I think that's exactly what it set out to do.

    GRADE: B+

You can also read this review at: http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-5950-F21A8C-39EF73A6-prod1 And other reviews on the same topic at: http://www.epinions.com/mvie Check out my profile page at: http://www.epinions.com/user-chad9976 Chad'z Movie Page is back! In-depth reviews of nearly all mainstream films playing at your local cineplex. There's also reviews of a few classic films and some of your personal favorites.

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews