# Bulworth (1998)

### reviewed by
Alex Fung

BULWORTH (Fox - 1998) Starring Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Oliver Platt, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden Screenplay by Warren Beatty, Jeremy Pikser Produced by Warren Beatty, Pieter Jan Brugge Directed by Warren Beatty Running time: 107 minutes

                      **1/2 (out of four stars)
                         Alternate Rating: C+

Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.

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"Yo." - U.S. Senator Jay Billington Bulworth

That, in a word, sums up the appeal of Warren Beatty's project BULWORTH, essentially a one-gag premise stretched kicking and screaming to feature-length. While the film's scathing concept is inspired and often wickedly funny, it's swamped by familiar extraneous material which subverts the comedy, and a sociopolitical message too jarringly self-conscious to mesh with the film's other elements.

It's the eve of the 1996 California primaries, and we're at the "doorstep to a new millennium". Incumbent Democratic Senator Bulworth (Mr. Beatty) is despondent -- his life is in a shambles, he hasn't eaten or slept in three days, and he's sick of spewing out the same meaningless deliberately-worded rhetoric -- so sick, in fact, that he's ready to end it all. After ordering a hit on himself, he's obligingly trotted around Los Angeles by his handlers, led by media-savvy campaign manager Dennis Murphy (Oliver Platt), for a final round of campaigning. Liberated by his impending mortality, Bulworth's free to throw caution to the wind, and he uncorks a barrage of decidedly politically-incorrect platitudes at his various stops, stunning and outraging his audiences and launching Murphy into a state of panicked spin control. Ultimately transforming himself into a rapping homeboy of a senatorial candidate, complete with hip-hop duds, Bulworth also undergoes a political reawakening, and his rhyming, disarmingly blunt liberal tirades begin to strike a chord with the weary, seen-it-all populace. Bulworth is reborn -- but will he survive long enough to enjoy it?

BULWORTH is at its best when it's at its most irreverent, with the newly-metamorphosized title character cheekily blurting observations, or strutting through the darkened streets of South Central backed by Cypress Hill on the soundtrack. There's discernable glee when the senator is given an impromptu crash course on hip-hop culture during an all-night party, and it's often great fun to take in a wildly animated Bulworth incongruously bursting out into rap, but the gag begins to lose its bite after constant repetition -- how many times can we cut to the faces of scandalized spectators before the humour dissipates? It's only through Mr. Beatty's engaging performance that this aspect of the film doesn't wear out its welcome.

We've got the makings of a fine political farce here, but the film's raison d'etre is its underlying impassioned rant against the status quo political system, and here's where BULWORTH loses its footing. Mr. Beatty's a famously avowed liberal, and his convictions are clearly heartfelt, but his film skewers each of its meaty targets -- from the impact of media manipulation to the role of politician as industry puppet to the touchy race issue in America -- in a manner that's not only lacking in eruditeness, but also rather simplistic and obvious. The film allows its characters so much screentime to wax eloquently on the state of inner city life that it becomes painfully sermonic. Corrupt officials, spin doctors, poll-watching, harassment of black youth by white cops: it's all been addressed in more sophisticated and thought-provoking fashion elsewhere.

If the film spins its wheels with its sociopolitical commentary, it's with the hitman subplot where it swerves and crashes. Distracting at best and aggravating at worst, this thread begins as a series of merely intrusive scenes involving the senator, associate Eddie Davers (Jack Warden), and faithful hit go-between Vinnie (Richard Sarafian), and quickly degenerates into mindless, annoying chase sequences, with Bulworth diving into shrubbery or burning rubber alongside mysterious new admirer Nina (Halle Berry) to evade a menacingly omnipresent suspected assassin. Best left on the cutting room floor, this aspect of the film is a drain, failing to add any comic or dramatic interest, and comes off as a weak excuse to include some action in an already-kinetic movie.

When I first saw the teasers for BULWORTH several months ago, my first though was that of cynical amazement that a film which superficially resembled AS GOOD AS IT GETS -- loud-talking protagonist cheerfully spewing racial jibes for comic effect -- could make it to market so quickly. In fact, this is a film whose gestation period has been a long one; Mr. Beatty, who wears multiple hats on the project (star, director, producer, co-writer), took great deliberations in his pitch to Fox (only the barest plot outline was given, with all of the political and racial angles excised), and leveraged monies owed from DICK TRACY in order to assume total control. This is clearly a personal project for Mr. Beatty, and he throws himself into the film with utter abandon -- rarely does an actor seem to be as filled with enthusiasm as he does here. Consistently amusing throughout, there's an extra bounce in his step, a delightful grin on his face that's infectious. Mr. Beatty's a wonderfully awful rapper, and it's disarmingly funny to watch a sexagenarian employing street hand gestures and gleefully rhyming his way through a televised debate. Taking a sizable risk, he pulls it off with flying colours -- Mr. Beatty's performance is by far the strongest aspect of BULWORTH.

The remainder of the cast is more hit-and-miss. Ms. Berry, a luminous onscreen presence, is nonetheless rather uninspiring as Bulworth's new devotee, playing Nina with such fierce remoteness that not only is she sufficiently ambiguous, she's also uncompelling; by the time the gloves are off in the third act, one can scarcely raise an eyebrow. Meanwhile, Mr. Platt's a wonderful character actor and does what he can with his frazzled Murphy character, but he's given only a few notes from which to riff as the aggravated aide.

Mr. Beatty has spent much of his life deeply involved in American politics, working alongside the likes of Robert Kennedy, George McGovern and Gary Hart, and with BULWORTH comes his opportunity to express some of his reflections and concerns on the direction the system is heading. The elements are present for a spectacularly good political lampoon, but ultimately the film is most memorable not for the message it conveys, but the sight of the iconic actor swaggering around, microphone in hand, chanting lines like "Billions to Mexico and never have to fear / Coz taxpayers, taxpayers take it in the rear / Yeah yeah yeah".

              - Alex Fung
              email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
              web  : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/

-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "Unlike you, I'm tolerant of weirdness." - Jennifer Jason Leigh, CROOKED HEARTS

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