Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, March 20, 1998
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Primary Colors lacks political luster
By Jeremy M. Doherty
jdoherty@kansan.com
Kansan movie critic
Had the public never heard of Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky or Kathleen Willey, Primary Colors would probably feel a lot edgier.
As it is now, its portrait of philandering, genial Southern governor who dodges a series of lurid scandals while en route to the White House just seems too familiar to surprise us.
The audience watches John Travolta impersonate a candidate clearly modeled after BIL Clinton and waits for the punch line. What exactly was director Mike Nichols' goal here — satire or oldfashioned melodrama?
Apparently, neither he nor his screenwriter, Elaine May, have an answer. In adapting Joe Klein's besteller (he wrote it under the pseudonym Anonymous), the duo have managed to lose much of the novel's biting humor and insight. They've fashioned a hokey fantasy, expecting the viewer to get all misty-eyed about an imperfect candidate. Their underlying theme appears to be that it's better to have a lying politician who cares
What Primary Colors does get right is the disorganized, sleepless feel of an election campaign. Henry Burton (Adrian Lester) is a youthful political animal who lives in the shadow of his grandfather, a respected civil rights figure. Tired of propping up do-nothing congressmen, Burton latches on to the presidential cake of doughnut-loving and skirt-chasing Jack Stanton (Travolta), the governor of a poor Southern state.
than a honest one who doesn't.
Review
Whatever.
Henry's job becomes one of damage control for the spotty crusade. Stanton, while on the surface a passionate and selfless public servant, is in reality a hot-tempered shyster who isn't afraid to use dirty tricks when the time is right.
Anyone who's seen the fine documentary The War Room will recognize much of the elements at play here. Henry and his cohorts (Billy Bob Thornton and Maura Tierney, among others) delve into a bitter and ruthless war, where a single CNN sound byte can mean life or death for the
PRIMARY COLORS
Kansan Rating: **1/2 out of *******
Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Rated R for pervasive strong language
campaign. It's nowtalk new, but Nichola stages the action so smoothly it comes across as gripping.
The film screeches to a halt whenever it focuses on its two above-the-title stars, Travolta and Emma Thompson, who is sorely under-utilized as Stanton's Machiavellian wife Susan. Basically, Nichols and May exploit our own perceptions of the Clintons without giving us a true look at the soul of their union.
Newcomer Lester is given a sizable chunk of airtime in *Primary Colors*, and, while he doesn't embarrass himself, the underwritten role has him essentially playing a straight man to the others.
Clocking in at a long 140 minutes, Primary Colors allows the pacing to lag and the mind to wander. Nichols should have followed the lead of Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog, which was 45 minutes shorter and miles funnier.
HE WAS
BORN TO RUN.
JOHN TRAVOLTA
EMMA THOMPSON
A FILM BY MIKE NICHOLS
PRIMARY
COLORS
OPENS MARCH 20
Contributed photc
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