The Front Runner

Brilliantly directed by Jason Reitman, from an intelligent, carefully researched and fast moving screenplay by Reitman, Jay Carson and Matt Bai (based on Bai’s marvelous book All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid), this enthralling film is a mirror to the shifting relationship between the media and politics, and the events that changed the last 30 years in American history.

A sharp-witted and wide-reaching account of a bright political hope’s fall from grace, with an impressive ensemble cast and a great performance from Jackman.

Most confoundingly, it sheds no light on Hart himself: a man who steadfastly insisted on maintaining his privacy, whose impressive intellect was couched within an aloof, withholding persona, remains a cipher, the missing core of a movie that’s nominally about him, but can’t seem to get a bead on its own protagonist.

As cautionary tales go, The Front Runner is of an unusually cautious bent. It presents the evidence, then sits back and folds its arms.

The film never quite clarifies its own attitude toward Hart. It simply doesn’t spend enough time with him to allow the audience to decide whether he was a truly transformative politician undone by tabloid reporters or just another slick operator. This robs the film of a tragic dimension that it might have achieved.

Given the upheavals of the past two years, along the fault line between electoral and sexual politics, Reitman could have told the sorry saga from Rice’s point of view — her brush with fame, and her demonization as a temptress, or worse, at the hands of the media. Why must the fall of man, rather than the survival of woman, still be the main event? Can’t we have the business without the monkeys?

The film quickly reveals that the only angle it’s interested in is the one that most sympathizes with Gary Hart.

"The world changes when young people give a damn." . ( 76/100 ) . Jason Reitman estuvo ocupado este año. Su trayectoria proviene desde su comedia seria e ingeniosa sobre temas de impacto e ironía social. Esto se muestra en su primera obra Thank You For Smoking (2005), sin embargo fue hasta el 2007, con Juno, en donde su segunda dirección lo llevó a una nominación al Academy Award. Su tercera dirección en Up In The Air (2009) también lo premió y a partir de ahí se le ha considerado un director relevante, competitivo y contundente. En este mismo año presentó dos películas cuyas producción no realmente fueron pequeñas: Tully, en donde se presentó una de las primeras actuaciones más intensas e importantes del año, cortesía de Charlize Theron, en cooperación con Mackenzie Davis; y ahora The Front Runner. En The Front Runner, Reitman adapta un libro llamado "All The Truth Is Out" escrito por Matt Bai quien es un periodista y columnista político. El protagonista es Gary Hart, diplomático, abogado y corredor delantero de las elecciones políticas para la presidencia de United States en 1988. Su historia, de alguna forma, fundó las bases éticas de la actitud pública y evidenció el importante valor de la privacidad y su gran vulnerabilidad ante la voracidad periodística. La historia no es complicada y es fácil de relatar, pero el debate ético que Reitman aprovecha sí lo es. ¿Hasta que punto es privada la vida de las figuras públicas? En la película, el equilibrio se logra gracias a la complejidad de diálogos y discursos que son adoptados por personalidades ágiles con el verbo y la expresión física. Bajo el guión del mismo Reitman, es Hugh Jackman y el impulso que le exige a Vera Farmiga, J. K. Simmons y actores de baja gama como Mamoudou Athie, Molly Ephraim, Sara Paxton y Steve Zissis, lo que logra que la película tenga una carga dramática interesante de ver. El elenco es aún más grande y la cámara es suficientemente dinámica como para presentar la línea de opinión de cada personaje, las diversas posturas que representan y la forma en la que influencían en el desarrollo narrativo. Por otro lado, varias de las presencias se sienten superpuestas y provoca que la película se sienta saturada de personalidades sin un propósito específico. Son pequeños momentos los que fortalecen a la película. A pesar de que la introducción de la idea principal de la historia se extiende inadecuadamente, ésta sí permite destellos de actuación y conflicto verbal en instantes muy específicos, pero la transición entre esos momentos generan cierto desapego por la historia. The Front Runner no es una mala película y tampoco está mal hecha. El dilema político y social que trata es fuerte, no lo suficiente como para crear impacto inmediato y una reflexión trascendental pero sí para conocer la importancia de un valor social. Sin importar el estatus público que se tenga, la privacidad se tiene que respetar, sin embargo, mientras más reconocimiento, uno es más vulnerable a sus errores y, por lo tanto, más responsable de sus acciones.

Never boring, but not quite penetrating enough on the main themes. The cast is incredibly good, with the exception of one - the actress playing Donna Rice. Ms. Rice is incredibly beautiful and smart, and was certainly no "bimbo" as many made her out to be - as does the film. Hart was a super-complicated guy with an unconventional marriage - something that didn't quite fit with the politics of the time. He got caught up in the grinder in the way that JFK and his predecessors never did.

Nothing great. Comes across at times as if it's just going through the motions despite Jackman's best efforts.

Despite being a fan of Reitman's work (Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking), this one didn't land home for me. I know why he wanted to make this movie, the link to the current president (Trump at this moment of writing in 2019) and what character he is as a leader. The one thing they have in common is that they may, or may not, have commited adultery and if that should be taken into account whether or not they are fit to command the oval office. The media prevented Hart from achieving this, but 30 years later Trump managed anyway, despite being a more nefarious character than Hart. It is a clear vision that in only a couple of decades, things can change dramatically. I've established that I know what he wanted to do. But it did not land. It has a very strong performance by Jackman and Farmiga is passable. It just focusses and zooms in on the wrong things. The story feels like an uphill climb, but the sights up there are not worth the trouble of the journey. I don't feel like I got to know the man Gary Hart, or his family. I didn't feel how big the impact actually was on his campaign and family, the movie only showed it to me. The only reason it got 6 points is of Jackman's performance, the line it tries to draw with current events and the fact that it was made with technology that was only available in the eighties. Besides that? Meh.

Frankly Jason Reitman hasn't done a great film for a long time but I think this film is perhaps his most worthy effort in a while and it might sound weird that I'm saying that because Tully wasn't a disappointment for me but in the end I wasn't really that happy with the results of that film and I must say - considering the results of this one - that those who are saving him are his actors. Because both in Tully and in this one. The main characters are the true engines of the stories. The Front Runner offers a great interpretation by Hugh Jackman and sincerely I must say that he's the best reason to give an opportunity to this film. I don't doubt that there are fans of the director or those who follow his work very closely but the truth is that I enjoyed this film more because of Jackman's work than for what his director managed to build.