Primary Colors 1998, Rated R

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Starring John Travolta, Emma Thompason.

Wag the Dog, another political film about a fictional president's improper relationship with a young woman, was funny. Dustin Hoffman and his mantra of "You think this is bad? This isn't bad," made me laugh out loud, which is quite the opposite effect most films involving spin doctors and politicians have on me. Primary Colors is a different story though.

Based on the novel written by anonymous (cough, cough, ahem, Joe Klein, who lied about his authoring the book more often than Clinton did about Monica's taking his dictation), Primary Colors seems like it would only funny to those select people who get a kick out of watching PBS stand-up comedy, of which I am not a member. In book form, this story of Stanton's rise to power from a southern state governor to democratic presidential nominee, was interesting. A book with a behind-the-scenes- look at the life and times of a presidential candidate, holds a sizable amount of potential, and consequently, Primary Colors, the novel, was a best-seller. However, as a motion picture, with the need to trim a 400 page book into a 120 page script, the life and quirky rhythms of the characters on the campaign trail are all but killed.

Adrian Lester stars as Henry Burton, Stanton's newly hired campaign manager. As the film opens, Lester is shown living with a woman, whom he loves and calls "honey". After the first five minutes though, her character is basically gone. Whether she broke off her relationship with Lester, or vice versa, the matter is never investigated. Lester is later seen sleeping with another campaign worker, played by Newsradio's Maura Tierney. This doesn't last either, as Tierney's character apparently quits and leaves the campaign, and, again, we are left with many hanging questions. It almost seems to me as if director Mike Nichols noticed these inaccuracies and open endings, and just didn't bother to do the necessary work to explain them. Worst of all though, is Nichols' and screenwriter Elaine May's lack of position throughout the film. To the untrained political observer--me--Primary Colors neither glamorizes, supports, tears down, or probes the character of Jack Stanton. Occasionally different characters will remark that Stanton is a good man, who believes in what he preaches, but quite often, Stanton's action directly reject this notion.

And in the end we are left with a fictional quasi-documentary about a guy whose face I am totally and completely sick of seeing on the front page of the Tribune. Much like Larry Clark's 1995 film Kids, Primary Colors would have been a much better movie had it actually have been a documentary. Had there been cameras following Clinton around from day one of his presidential campaign, and a director like Ken Burns, or Francis Ford Coppula put their own spin on the material, I would have made a special point to screen that. However, as it stands, Primary Colors did nothing to increase my interest in Washington politics, and as a whole, only made me realize that the character of Jack Stanton has apparently had sex with more women that Wilt Chamberlain.

If you are a staunch Clinton supporter, or detractor, and don't question why Clinton, as the most powerful man in the universe, would choose to have improper relations with a girl that looked like Monica, Primary Colors might be a passable way to spend an evening. For me though, Primary Colors was nothing more than 2 hours and 24 minutes of rather bland, uninspiring, and unfunny celluloid.