
I say sort of oldie because it came out 15 years ago, and I say pretty goodie because it is a good, solid romance. It's a chick flick but a decent one at that.
Michael Douglas plays President Andrew Shepherd, a widower and father who has an very large approval rating, but begins to get uncomfortable with the perception surrounding his being a single father. Coincidentally, he meets hard-charging political strategist and lobbyist Sydney Wade (Annette Bening - American Beauty). Shepherd is immediately taken by Wade and invites her to a State dinner, the two begin a relationship, much to the chagrin of Sydney's boss and much to the delight of President Shepherd's political rival, the scheming Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss - Jaws). Rumson begins to attack Sydney and the President's character which sends President Shepherd's approval ratings tumbling and eventually forces Shepherd to choose between one of his priority bills and the bill Sydney was hired to get passed. The film also stars Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, and Samantha Mathis.
This is basically just a well done, feel good romance movie. It has likable good guys, hatable bad guys, chemistry between the stars, a happy ending. It's really hard to say anything bad about it. I'm sure some of those people who are so super conservative or liberal would focus too much on whatever political thing is going on in the movie rather than the movie itself, but those people need take a hike anyway. It's not too long, it progresses nicely, and ends on high note. It's not overly cheesy or cliche' but then again most romances have those, which is one of the reasons we like them.
I guess if I had to say one critical thing about the film is that I thought it may have spent a little too much time focusing on the race for votes which is the mechanism used to drive the action of the film and not enough on the relationship of our main characters. But that's me being nit picky.
I don't know if you necessarily need to go out and rent this one, because it's not going to change your life or anything, and its also on like every week. But since its on TV a lot (and there's usually a reason for a movie being on TV a lot...it's a good movie) I would recommend cuddling up with your snuggle buddy and taking this one in.
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