In honor of the upcoming election, I have been watching and then reviewing one politically-themed movie each week. This week I decided on Dave, a 1993 comedy featuring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.
In the movie Dave, President Bill Mitchell (played by Kevin Kline has a stroke while having sex with a White House employee. Dave Kovic (also played by Kevin Kline), a dead ringer for the President, winds up impersonating the President because the corrupt White House Chief of Staff, Bob Alexander (played by Frank Langella) wants all the power to himself. Comedy inevitably ensues, in particular because the real President Bill Mitchell is the stereotypical hard-hearted conservative, while Dave Kovic represents the stereotypical bleeding heart liberal. Sigourney Weaver plays First Lady Ellen Mitchell, who discovers a new attraction to her "husband."
While Dave does rely on the stereotypes of U.S. politics for some of it's humor, it goes beyond that simple device. Political junkies will enjoy seeing a large cast of pundits playing themselves in their usual roles; I spotted Eleanor Clift, Fred Barnes, Michael Kinsley, Bob Novak, Larry King, Oliver Stone (complete with a conspiracy theory) and several actual politicians, including Alan Simpson, Tip O'Neill, and Paul Simon (complete with bow tie). There are also funny scenes involving Dave and the First Lady: my favorite moment comes when they are pulled over by a cop after sneaking out of the White House.
The best thing about this movie, though, is that it is a political movie that manages to be funny and inspiring at the same time. Through the course of the movie, Dave discovers that through the office of the President, he can make positive changes happen for people. The movie doesn't shy away from being idealistic, and I found myself feeling hopeful after watching it.
Dave is worth watching both for the message it conveys and for the humor that it contains. Who knows? After watching you might just want to run for office yourself.
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