Review: The Front Runner

The Front Runner, director Jason Reitman’s look inside a cultural moment in time that helped alter the course of modern journalism, follows along in the tonal vein of other recently minted film and television looks at politicians falling from grace, but it also finds the filmmaker and his chosen star in reinvigorated form. With Reitman reverting to the type of fast paced, darkly comedic human dramas that he dabbled in with the likes of Up in the Air and Thank You for Smoking and leading man Hugh Jackman reminding viewers that he’s an exceptionally capable performer outside the realm of Hollywood blockbusters, The Front Runner stands as a solid, if imperfect example of what they’re capable at the height of their respective crafts.

The Front Runner begins in 1984, shortly after American Democratic presidential hopeful and Colorado senator Gary Hart (Jackman) has lost in the primaries. He chalks the loss up as a learning experience, endearing himself to aides and staffers as a tempestuous, but motivational figure; vowing to return in 1988. By the time the next election rolls around, Hart seems an unstoppable lock to run for the Democrats against Vice President George H.W. Bush. A married man with a penchant for cheating, Hart has always believed that a person’s private life should remain out of the public eye, and that his transgressions shouldn’t have any bearing on his professional goals. Unfortunately for Hart, he became one of the first casualties of the 24-hour cable television news cycle and the print media’s desire to track salacious, scandal baiting headlines in an effort to keep pace with their broadcast counterparts.

Adapted by Reitman, first time screenwriter Jay Carson (who worked as a producer on House of Cards), and journalist Matt Bai from Bai’s 2014 nonfiction look inside the Hart debacle’s lasting impact, All the Truth is Out, The Front Runner has a familiar, but specific feel to it. Hart’s infidelity hasn’t been explicitly mined yet for cinematic or theatrical gold, and considering the state of American politics since the early 90s, it’s surprising no one has attempted it before now. Since the Kennedy administration, the mainstream media has both rightfully and dubiously become focused on the personal transgressions of presidents and those seeking to ascend to one of the highest elected offices in the world. Scandal existed long before Hart’s campaign was derailed, but The Front Runner seeks to illustrate the first time a political figurehead had their career ruined by something that wasn’t directly tied to their ability to hold office. It has always been a fraught situation, where some people rightfully question a scandalized politician’s honesty, while others prefer to take a high moral stance because of what the transgressions entail.

Reitman and his team of co-writers want to look at what these events looked like from the inside with The Front Runner, and the results are strong, but not exactly game changing or exceptional. The Front Runner finds Reitman once again committing to the Aaron Sorkin-esque conversational rhythms of his earlier work, only leaning into them a bit more heavily than his recent efforts. It’s probably the obvious parallels that The Front Runner’s mumbly walk and talks have to Sorkin’s The West Wing that make the overall form and function of Reitman’s work here functional but underwhelming. It’s a story that hasn’t been told before delivered in a format that’s quickly becoming done to death, right down to the casting of numerous recognizable character actors for bit parts (Vera Farmiga as Hart’s wife, Alfred Molina as yet another incarnation of newspaper editor Ben Bradlee, rising star Mamoudou Athie as an eager reporter, Steve Zissis as a more seasoned journalist, Reitman regular J.K. Simmons as a gruff, cynical campaign advisor). They’re all good, but the female characters are all thankless and useless, and the guys all talk like they sprung from the consciousness of the same writer. It’s a safe retreat to Reitman’s comfort zone following a handful of sometimes bizarre misfires, but it’s far from a bad film.

While the dialogue and storytelling beats aren’t much to write home about thanks to Reitman’s notoriously trademarked wishy-washy refusal to take any sort of side in a moral argument (which is as admirable as it is flavourless), the filmmaker revels in finding clever ways to recreate the 1980s period trappings. A lazier director might’ve looked at the infamous photos of Hart in a goofy “Monkey Business” sweatshirt with his attractive blonde mistress, Donna Rice, built an entire film around that one seminal image and called it a day. Reitman and his go-to cinematographer Eric Steelberg balance realistic 80s grittiness and production design details with elaborate movement and a genuine mastery over the place and time the story takes place. It looks and moves like a film that was produced in the 1980s in spite of the script’s decidedly post-modern beats.

While there are a lot of distractions throughout The Front Runner and asides that follow characters other than Hart, the film resolutely belongs to Jackman’s restrained, but commanding and sometimes intimidating performance. Even though he’s often called upon to play tough guys or perform as a high level as a singer, dancer, and all around entertainer, he also proves to be a perfect choice of leading man to play an innocuous looking politician with cutthroat sensibilities and a barely containable temper. Even before Hart confronts a group of reporters staking out his house in the middle of the night (one of the best stand alone scenes in any film this year), there’s a sense that Jackman could let his character’s everyman geniality slip at any moment. There’s some fun to be had thinking about how beneath the baggy, 80s styled suit Hart wears, there’s a physically intimidating man who wouldn’t think twice about snapping someone in half if they were to cross him. That’s not necessarily how Hart was in real life or how Jackman is playing him. The performance is much more restrained and layered than that, but on a psychological level, Jackman’s mere presence in such a role lends the material a great deal of unpredictability that can be read between the rigorously scripted lines. We don’t know how Hart will react when shit hits the fan, but there’s a fear that he’ll convey his displeasure in an inappropriate manner akin to self-sabotage.

While it’s probably not the high level prestige project everyone involved hoped it would be, The Front Runner still has a lot to like within its standard construction. The overall story and Jackman’s commanding performance are more than enough to warrant a watch, but many of the other politically dramatic elements are underbaked and unmemorable, although they’re delivered with a considerable amount of craft. The problems at the heart of The Front Runner now seem quaint by the standards of modern political scandals, and while it won’t make people pine for simpler times, it does a nice job showing how far in the wrong direction we’ve come with regards to how they’re covered by the media.

The Front Runner opens in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday, November 16, 2018. It expands to Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal (English only), Kitchener/Waterloo, WIndsor, London, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, and Victoria on Wednesday, November 21.

Check out the trailer for The Front Runner: