ArthouseSchmarthouse’s review published on Letterboxd:
7
Amazon Prime Video (Rental)
An effortlessly charismatic, twinkly-eyed Kevin Kline does his best James Stewart impersonation in this gently satirical, Capra-esque political comedy-drama from Ivan Reitman. The MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON 'what if an honest, ordinary American everyman went into politics?' vibes are strong-- albeit packaged with a distinctly 90s zany concept, with Kline's titular character becoming President because the real President (also Kline) has a massive stroke whilst Dave is doubling for him. Reitman uses Dave's straight-talking, honest wholesomeness to compare against the ambition, cynicism, dishonesty and greed of the political operatives (exemplified by a suitably evil Frank Langella in particular) into whose world he thrust into. Made after the nihilistic, misanthropic political films of the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era (such as THE CANDIDATE and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN) but before the modern era of nihilistic, misanthropic political television exemplified by THE THICK OF IT and VEEP, DAVE is without doubt a film that could only have been produced in the more positive 90s. The satire is definitely there, but it is very mild; overall, the film is almost relentlessly positive, emphasising the importance of honesty, respect, integrity and human decency in the political system. It posits that with hard work and good humour, there are no problems that cannot be solved. This can, of course, be easily dismissed in today's political culture as ridiculously naive and simplistic, but to do so is to give in to the very cynicism that DAVE decries; like Capra's MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (though I think that film is a good deal more hard-hitting than DAVE overall), it envisages a world in which the democratic system is essentially a Good Thing; whilst can be twisted to evil ends by individuals, it is equally possible for good, honest, decent people to use it for good. Ultimately, DAVE sets out the world as we would want it to be, rather than as it is. The whole thing is held together by Kline, in possibly his best performance outside of A FISH CALLED WANDA: he is the very embodiment of human decency, but never allows things to tip over into mawkishness. Signourney Weaver has a less interesting role as the First Lady, though she still manages to bring class and dignity to the proceedings. Charles Grodin, Ving Rhames and Ben Kingsley all pop up in small but well-cast supporting roles. Overall, DAVE is not a film to go for if you are looking for acerbic socio-political commentary on the state of American democracy-- but if you are looking for a simple, gently moving story about how politics should work, shot through with a distinctly 90s goofiness, you could do far worse than this.
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