The Front Runner (2018)

In 1987, U.S. Senator Gary Hart's presidential campaign is derailed when he's caught in a scandalous love affair.

Director:

Jason Reitman

Writers:

Matt Bai, Jay Carson

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J.K. Simmons

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hugh Jackman	...	Gary Hart
Vera Farmiga	...	Lee Hart
J.K. Simmons	...	Bill Dixon
Mark O'Brien	...	Billy Shore
Molly Ephraim	...	Irene Kelly
Chris Coy	...	Kevin Sweeney
Alex Karpovsky	...	Mike Stratton
Josh Brener	...	Doug Wilson
Tommy Dewey	...	John Emerson
Kaitlyn Dever	...	Andrea Hart
Oliver Cooper	...	Joe Trippi
Jenna Kanell	...	Ginny Terzano
RJ Brown	...	Bill Martin
Alfred Molina	...	Ben Bradlee
Mamoudou Athie	...	AJ Parker

Storyline

Gary Hart, a U.S. senator from Colorado, is the widely accepted front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. After losing the 1984 nomination to vice-president Walter Mondale, Hart decides to run for President of the United States. At one point during his campaign, against the will of his manager Bill Dixon, Hart challenges the press and public to "follow him around" while he's not campaigning on weekends. This proves to be a mistake when in 1987, photos of him and journalist Donna Rice are published by Miami Herald Reporters. In a desperate attempt to clear his name, Hart tries to fix his reputation at a news event concerning the affair but to no avail. Because of the consequences of his actions, Hart is disgraced, berated by Dixon, and forced to drop out of the campaign while his wife Oletha remains to be close with him. Donna also announces that she has personally denied sleeping with the now former senator..

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Plot Keywords:

politics | scandal | presidential campaign | senator | 1980s | 

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Taglines:

Based on a True Story

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language including some sexual references

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the journalists mentions a time when Lyndon B. Johnson told the press that they would see many women entering and leaving his hotel room, and urged them not to write about it (which they didn't). For a long time, extramarital affairs of politicians were indeed considered gossip by professional journalists; even though the escapades of Johnson and especially John F. Kennedy were well known among the press (with Johnson often even bragging that he could put JFK's numbers to shame), they never wrote about such things, as politicians' personal lives were not considered newsworthy. Gary Hart was one of the first politicians whose alleged private indiscretions were used as an argument against his suitability as a leader.

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Goofs

The Washington, DC license plates on the stakeout car start with 4 which is accurate for the 80's, but the plate also includes letters which is not correct for the era.

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Quotes

Bill Dixon: He's not a regular person, he's the next fucking president of the United fucking States!

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Crazy Credits

The film opens with the 1984 Columbia Pictures logo.

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Connections

Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Kerry Washington/David Sedaris/Mamoudou Athie/Caitlin Kalafus (2018)

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Soundtracks

Winter In
Written by Gene Clark
Performed by Gene Clark
Published by Irving Music, Inc.
Courtesy of A&M Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

"Scandal" that no longer seems so scandalous.

The Front Runner is based on the true-story of US presidential hopeful Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) and if you are NOT aware of the historical background (and have not seen the trailer) then you might want to skip the rest of this review - and all other reviews - so you can see the film first and let the history come as a surprise to you.

Hart was younger than most candidates: good-looking, floppy-haired and refreshingly matter of fact in his dealings with the public and the press. Any interviews had to be about his politics: not about his family life with wife Lee (Vera Farmiga) and teenage daughter Andrea (Kaitlyn Dever).

Unfortunately, Hart has a weakness for a pretty face (or ten) and his marriage is rocky as a result: "Just don't embarrass me" is Lee's one requirement. His "nothing to hide" line to an intelligent Washington Post reporter - AJ Parker (a well cast Mamoudou Athie) - leads to a half-arsed stake-out by Miami Herald reporters and incriminating pictures linking Hart to a Miami pharmaceutical saleswoman Donna Rice (Sara Paxton). As the growing press tsunami rises, and his campaign manager (J.K. Simmons) gets more and more frustrated with him, can his candidacy survive and will his (now very much embarrassed) wife stick by him?

Hugh Jackman is perfectly cast here; very believable as the self-centred, self-righteous and stubborn politician. But this central performance is surrounded by a strong team of supporting players. Vera Farmiga is superb as the wounded wife. Sara Paxton is heartbreaking as the intelligent college girl unfairly portrayed as a "slapper" by the media. The scenes between her and Hart-staffer Irene (Molly Ephraim), trying desperately to support her as best she can, are very nicely done. J.K Simmons as campaign manager Bill Dixon is as reliable as ever. And Alfred Molina turns up as the latest film incarnation of The Post's Ben Bradlee - surely one of the most oft portrayed real-life journalists in film history.

One of my biggest dissatisfactions with the film is with the sound mixing. Was this a deliberate act by director Jason Reitman, to reflect the chaotic nature of political campaigning? Whether it was deliberate or not, much of the film's dialogue - particularly in the first 30 minutes of the film - is drowned out by background noise. Sometimes I just longed for subtitles!

The screenplay, by Matt Bai (from his source book), Jay Carson (a Clinton staffer) and director Jason Reitman might align with the story, but the big problem is that the story is just a little bit dull, particularly by today's levels of scandal. This suffers the same fate as "House of Cards" (even before the Kevin Spacey allegations) in that the shocking realities of the Trump-era have progressively neutered the shock-factor of the fiction: to the point where it starts to become boring. Here, only once or twice does the screenplay hit a winning beat: for me, it was the scenes between Donna Rice and Irene Kelly and the dramatic press conference towards the end of the film. The rest of the time, the screenplay was perfectly serviceable but nothing spectacular.

A core tenet of the film is Hart's view that politics should be about the policies and not about the personality. Looking at the subject nowadays, it's clearly a ridiculously idealistic viewpoint. Of course it matters. Politicians need to be trusted by their constituents (yeah, like that's the case in the UK and the US at the moment!) and whether or not they slap their wives around or sleep with farm animals is clearly a material factor in that relationship. But this was clearly not as much the case in the 70's as it is today, and the suggestion is that the Hart case was a turning point and a wake-up call to politicians around the world. (An interesting article by the Washington Post itself points out that this is also a simplistic view: that Hart should have been well aware of the dangerous game he was playing.)

Do you think that powerful politicos are driven to infidelity because they are powerful? Or that it is a characteristic of men who have the charisma to become political leaders in the first place? Such was the discussion my wife and I had in the car home after this film. Nature or political nurture? I'm still not sure. It's worth pointing out that to this day both Hart and Rice (interestingly, an alleged ex-girlfriend of Eagles front-man Don Henley) stick to their story that they never had sex.

The film's perfectly watchable, has great acting, but is a little bit of a non-event. The end titles came and I thought "OK, that's that then".... nothing more. If you're a fan of this style of historical political film then you probably won't be disappointed by it; if not, probably best to wait and catch this on the TV.

(For the full graphical review please check out One Mann's Movies on the web or Facebook. Thanks).

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Front Runner

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$51,543, 11 November 2018

Gross USA:

$2,000,105

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,242,235

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Stage 6 Films, BRON Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1