'THE FRONT RUNNER' which I saw at my local independent movie theatre this week, is an American biographical drama film Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Jason Reitman whose previous Directorial outings include 'Thank You for Smoking', 'Juno', 'Up In The Air', 'Young Adult', 'Labor Day' and 'Tully' more recently. Based on the 2014 Matt Bai book 'All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid', the film surrounds Gary Hart who is an American Politician, Diplomat, Lawyer and Author and was the 'front-runner' for the 1988 Democratic Presidential nomination, representing the State of Colorado in the US Senate from 1975 through until 1987. The film Premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August last year, was released in the US in early November, has so far taken under US$3M at the Box Office and has received mixed Reviews.
The film kicks of in 1984 and here Hugh Jackman portrays Gary Hart, the former senator of Colorado, who loses out on the Vice-President nomination to Walter Mondale. Hart comes in second place but quite a way down the rankings. Not to be down trodden or brow beaten, Hart decides to run for the top job at the Whitehouse in the 1988 Presidential campaign. In the intervening years Hart has spent his time campaigning, raising his profile especially among the younger voting demographic whom he seems to share a connection with, and fine tuning his position on policies that matter to working class America and the future lifeblood of the nation.
With his 1988 campaign ramping up, and the press constantly on his tail, he is interviewed in a diner having cooked up burgers for everyone as a publicity stunt, by A.J. Parker (Mamoudou Athie) a Washington Post reporter. The conversation turns personal when A.J. starts enquiring about his married life and his marital beliefs - a subject that Hart was notoriously guarded about. The interview concludes with Hart abruptly excusing himself and inviting the media to follow him around at the weekends when he is not campaigning and enjoying some family time. This would give an insight into Hart, the family man, and his beliefs, albeit Hart qualifies this by stating that it will be a fairly boring exercise for anyone who chooses to do so. Needless to say Bill Dixon (J.K. Simmons) Hart's long term Campaign Manager is against the notion, but is over-ruled by the would-be President of the United States.
Hart had announced his candidacy to run for the Oval Office in mid-April 1987 and the story here unfolds over three troublesome weeks thereafter in which Hart would go from Hero to Zero. Hart's political challenges begin when he is invited one weekend to enjoy a party on a cruising motor boat down Florida way - perhaps appropriately named 'Monkey Business'. There Hart meets a woman, although their 'interaction' is never revealed to camera, and we never to get to view the mystery woman until later on in the film when allegations of an extra-marital affair emerge.
By late April, The Miami Herald claimed that an anonymous informant had telephoned the paper to say that Hart was having an affair with a friend, provided details about the affair, and told the reporter that Hart was going to meet this person at his Washington, D.C. townhouse that weekend. As a result, a team of Herald reporters followed Donna Rice (Sara Paxton) on a flight from Miami to Washington D.C., then staked out Hart's townhouse that evening from their vehicle parked across the street, and the next Saturday, and observed a young woman and Hart together. The Herald reporters confronted Hart on Saturday evening in an alley behind his townhouse about his relationship with Rice, which Hart vehemently denied.
The Herald publish the story a few days later in early May stating that Hart had spent Friday night and the majority of Saturday with a young woman at his townhouse. Later the following weekend Hart's media campaigners denied any scandal and condemned the Herald's reporters for intrusive reporting.
Needless to say the scandal spread rapidly through all media channels during the course of that week. Hart faces facts with his wife Oletha 'Lee' Hart (Vera Farmiga) whom he had been married to since 1958, had two young adult children and had been separated from twice over the years but always managed to reconcile their differences. Lee vows to at least temporarily stand by her man, and goes to the media showing a united front.
However, the media coverage came to dominate Hart's campaign. Opinion Polls conducted in the direct aftermath of the media frenzy found that 55% of Democrats believed that Hart had been truthful, and 44% of them were unconcerned about the issue. The polling of voters was even more positive. Further polls had very similar results - of those polled, 67% disapproved of the media writing about a candidate's sex life, and 60% stated that Hart's relationship with Rice was irrelevant to the Presidency. This buoyed Hart somewhat but he was still caught off guard when at a press conference he was asked again by A.J. more pointed personal questions that ended with him being asked if he had ever committed adultery, to which in front of the gathered press, and his wife, he could not honestly answer.
A week after the story broke, Hart made the decision to suspended his campaign after the Washington Post, at the decision of the Editor Ben Bradlee (Alfred Molina), threatened to run a story about a woman Hart had dated while separated from his wife, and to which they had photographic evidence, much to the chagrin of A.J. This ultimately led to Lee and his daughter Andrea (Kaitlyn Dever) becoming similar targets of interest for the tabloid press for a short period of time. The film concludes with the Hart's relaxing on the deck of their home with the voiceover of Gary stating his decision to pull out of the race to the Whitehouse. Before the closing credits roll, we are told that Gary and Lee remain married to this day.
'The Front Runner' moves along at a reasonably swift pace, but there is little to maintain any real interest here. After all, whilst this was considered a scandal at the time (at least in the eyes of the media), the American population thought a lot less so, as did his wife ultimately, and compared to the antics of the current sitting President, Hart would almost be considered angelic, and the accusations brought against him a non-starter. But this was thirty years ago and time and opinion has moved on apace since then. Jackman plays the wannabe President with conviction and believability, but the remaining cast members are also rans, and the story is done & dusted before it really gets going, charting the three weeks leading up to him pulling out of the race, which in reality is less than two weeks, and the accusations were never really proven with Hart and Rice both denying any sexual relations. And furthermore, Hart's career, whilst not reaching the dizzying heights of the Oval Office, remained in the political, legal and writing arena right up until January 2017, so I guess its fair to say that all's well, that ends well Mr. Hart. It's a very brief snapshot in time of a 'scandal' (if it can really be called that) that really impacted just one man (to an extent) and his family rather than the establishment, that seems in many respects to have been over before it really got going and has since been banished to the history books. You can easily wait for this to watch it on BluRay from the comfort of your own lounge, on via your streaming network of choice.'The Front Runner' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
