“The Front Runner”

At the end of 2018, we had 3 films about historical political figures. “Vice” (Dick Cheney), “On the Basis of Sex” (RBG) & this one. Not sure how many people were asking for a movie about Gary Hart, but here we are. This film was a box office flop, but as far as political dramas go, it isn’t too bad. Gary Hart, if you recall was the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency in the 80’s until he got caught cheating. Hart, denied and skirted the issue until he ultimately had to kill his campaign when everybody knew it was true. This doesn’t make for an exactly compelling movie, but it is well constructed and the performances by Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga & JK Simmons are well executed. The movie is a little over-written. The writers seemed to take a page out of the Aaron Sorkin playbook with much of its script and played up the cuteness and self righteousness in the dialogue. It got on my nerves after a while. The film does move along and I always appreciate that. I hate movies that drag and this one didn’t. Hart, by himself isn’t all that interesting, but as part of this story, I didn’t mind watching the story play out even though I knew the ending. Worth a Netflix viewing and that’s about it.

Rating: (**1/2)