USA and UK on HBO: The Special Relationship; Not-So-Special TV
The Special Relationship stumbles over the same roadblocks other ripped-from-the-headlines projects endure. Quaid gamely tries mimicking Clinton, but the performance brings to mind a half dozen impersonators during Clinton’s eight years in office. The steel gray wig and raspy voice leave Quaid helpless to leave his mark on the 42nd president.
You hope against hope Quaid won’t be forced to say “I did not have sex with that woman … Miss Lewinsky,” because the moment is permanently etched in our minds.
And yet that’s exactly what we see, as well as other greatest hits from the Clinton archives — like Hillary‘s “vast right-wing conspiracy“ shtick.
The film doesn’t avoid the Monica Lewinsky affair. In fact, it takes up a large chunk of the narrative and makes the president look like an even bigger boob than we remember. We see Blair rallying by the side of his new friend and watch the Clinton spin machine hit overdrive in the hopes of chasing the story away.
Relationship doesn’t include a filmed sequence in which Bill Clinton first informs his wife of the affair, but it’s really besides the point.
The film reflects how the “special relationship” in question helped Clinton escape from the damage wrought by his pathetic urges.
Blair, by contrast, is a cross between a boy scout and a pit bull, a hyper-idealized politician who simply must do the right thing at all costs. It’s a minor miracle that Sheen can add layers to such a stiffly imagined portrait.
Hope Davis is nearly as potent playing First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The makeup team didn’t go into overdrive to make the actress look exactly like the current secretary of state. Instead, she captures the woman’s penchant for bare-knuckled rhetoric.
It’s hardly a shock to see the Clintons portrayed as a wonderfully balanced couple, twin rock stars who don’t sweat the occasional infidelity.
At times, Relationship feels like it’s pining for a 2012 “Hillary for President” campaign. The Blairs marvel at the “co-presidency” at work in the Oval Office.
“There’s something quite romantic about that,” says Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair, the prime minister’s saintly spouse.
Americans who recall Bill Clinton’s numerous escapades will find little romantic about their pairing.
HBO is becoming the go-to place for political dramas based on recent events, and the template is growing stale. The gentle leftward tilt. The famous actors portraying events still too fresh in our minds. The lazy use of news clips to patch the narrative together.
The Special Relationship suffers from all of the above, yet the dynamic performances of Sheen and Davis give the film a sense of purpose that may surprise some.
I wonder if that cut scene mentioned in the New York Post link will be included in the DVD extras?
Somehow I doubt it.
Now that we’ve suffered numerous Mohammedan attacks on both countries, could somebody mention the Clinton-Blair war on our Christian brothers and allies in the Balkans in favor of our Islamic enemies?
I watched this movie, and the reviewer neglected to mention how the movie portrays Tony Blair’s close relationship with George W. Bush as a big mistake. Ironically, Bill Clinton tells Blair (in the movie) that he’s not really a proper “progressive” (presumably, like Clinton himself). However, Blair steered Britain much more leftward than Clinton did with America.
By the end, the whole movie really just seems a set-up to the British left’s view of Blair — that he is just “Bush’s poodle,” too enamored with America, and not sufficiently loyal to the EU. The filmmakers clearly would prefer it the other way around. Moreover, Clinton calls the Bush presidency “illegal” — this, even before the Iraq War.
I enjoyed the first two in Peter Morgan’s trilogy of Tony Blair movies. But this one seemed the most left-wing. Even leaving aside the politics, it was the weakest of the 3, without as strong a storyline, more of a ’90s political hit parade.