Politics are always divisive, but regardless of your party affiliation (or lack thereof) I think we can all agree that “President of the United States” is a pretty tough job. The complexity is unfathomable, the stakes enormous. Every day, the president makes decisions that directly affect the lives of not just Americans, but every human being on the planet. Whether you love a president or hate their guts, or know nothing about them — sorry, Chester A. Arthur — every commander-in-chief has a complicated legacy, full of some (hopefully many) successes and some (hopefully few) missteps.
But you wouldn’t know that from watching “Reagan.”
Sean McNamara’s fawning and superficial biopic about the 40th president of the United States treats the political figure as a godlike messiah who was placed on this Earth to vanquish America’s enemies, foreign and domestic, and fall perfectly in love with the perfect woman while riding horses dramatically across the California hills. Criticisms of Reagan warrant no more than a brief montage about how weird the 1980s were — except for the Iran-Contra scandal, which adds up to a whopping “whoopsie-daisy.”
It’s no great sin to have a perspective on the subject of a biographical motion picture, positive or negative, but “Reagan” doesn’t just love Ronald Reagan. It idolizes him so much that it makes you wonder if it defies that commandment about not worshipping false idols. McNamara’s picture, written by Howard Klausner (“The Identical”), gives such a one-sided and celebratory account of Reagan’s life that it doesn’t even serve the function of being informative. Audiences might walk away from this movie knowing a bit more trivia, but they’ll understand less about Reagan’s life and presidency if they take this love letter too seriously.
“Reagan” has a bizarre framing device, in which a young Russian politician visits aging KGB agent Viktor Ivanov, played by Jon Voight, who spends a whole day just telling this guy how great Ronald Reagan was. The Soviets dubbed the American actor and eventual politician “The Crusader,” and according to one anecdote, he was literally prophesied to become president and bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Ivanov spent decades warning his superiors that Reagan was Communism’s worst nightmare, even when he was starring in “Bedtime for Bonzo,” but they would not believe him.
Dennis Quaid plays Reagan, who rose from the ranks of Hollywood — the film is, at least, willing to admit his acting career was underwhelming — to become a leader in the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan stands up against communists in the industry, nuance about the Hollywood blacklist be damned. Except when he meets Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller), his future wife, who asks him to remove her name from the blacklist because it’s all a mistake — another “Nancy Davis” attended communist gatherings, not her. And because he finds her attractive, he does so immediately, no questions asked, no confirmation needed, undermining (presumably by accident) the portrayal of Reagan as a hardliner.
Then again, “Reagan” seems weirdly eager to portray Ronald Reagan as easily manipulated. The first half of the movie finds young Reagan changing his whole life on a whim whenever something in the media wanders into his frame of vision. He reads a dime-store novel that makes him want to go into politics. He hears one public speaking engagement about communism and his views are solidified forever. He has one conversation with studio executive Jack L. Warner (Kevin Dillon) and it permanently affects his position on unions. In the film’s zeal to cover all the bases, it doesn’t explain how the game worked, and despite its reverent cinematography and music and speeches, it makes Reagan look like an empty vessel (again, presumably by accident).
Reagan’s film career dwindles on the vine, so he decides to pursue politics. He flashes a charismatic smile that didn’t make him a big star in Hollywood, but stands out against career politicians who weren’t camera-ready. To hear “Reagan” tell it, Americans were gobsmacked that a politician was capable of a witty rejoinder, and frequently stopped whatever they were doing to watch debates unfold with slack-jawed wonder. Did this politician actually make a joke? Can they do that?
Of course, it’s fair to say that Reagan took advantage of his experience as a performer to deliver his message to the American public, but “Reagan” suggests he practically invented the idea of confident leadership. Even when the film dramatizes undeniable facts, its worshipful presentation oversells his remarkable qualities and undersells any valid critiques — when it mentions them at all. So little effort goes into actually exploring Reagan’s life that the film plays like a laundry list of accomplishments, not a drama. Wikipedia pages have more oomph.
The cast of “Reagan” flounders, to say the least. Quaid, normally a strong actor, seems to be exerting most of his energy keeping Reagan’s trademarked, cheery rasp in constant play, and comes across as childlike when he doesn’t come across as weirdly hardened. Then again, the movie does suggest (again and again, presumably accidentally) that his convictions may have stemmed from his naiveté. So maybe that’s a more clever acting decision than it appears at a glance.
Jon Voight is in full exposition mode, and rattles off information like a college professor who’s got tenure and just editorializes now. Every scene portraying Ivanov as a younger man suffers from Voight’s deeply unconvincing makeup, which doesn’t so much make him look younger as it does make it look like he, you know, applied bad makeup. Voight does get the film’s one shining moment: a genuinely funny montage of multiple Soviet leaders dying in quick succession. As he hands each one paperwork, they each cough ominously, and then it cuts to their funeral, one after another. History is wild sometimes.
Penelope Ann Miller emerges with her respectability intact, trying to bring some energy and, when possible, a modicum of depth to a role that’s staggeringly underwritten. Nancy Reagan was born to be a supporting player, the way “Reagan” tells it, dutifully falling in line with whatever her husband wants and supporting him in every endeavor, only pushing back when he needs an ego boost.
“You look twenty years younger than you are!” Nancy yells at him, apparently oblivious to Quaid’s also-unconvincing makeup. It’s a thankless role, but Miller should be thanked anyway for trying as hard as she does.
Eventually Reagan becomes president and does everything right — even the stuff he did wrong. His controversial decision to fire air traffic controllers for going on strike, which had lasting negative consequences, is portrayed as a simple heroic act. A few fleeting shots of queer protesters grossly diminishes his egregious and deadly mishandling of the AIDS epidemic and suggests it wasn’t a big deal at all. His support for South African apartheid is suspiciously unmentioned. The part he played in empowering Osama bin Laden apparently wasn’t historically significant either. Reagan, according to “Reagan,” had no flaws and made no mistakes, no matter what the people who lived through it say.
Director Sean McNamara has had a remarkably eclectic career, directing hit films like “Soul Surfer,” beloved shows like “The Secret World of Alex Mack” and “That’s So Raven,” and oddities like “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain” and “The King’s Daughter.” It’s not easy to navigate an extensive production like “Reagan” and he manages that task, but the footage never coalesces into a meaningful story.
It’s a series of one thing that happens, followed by another, often without real connective tissue. There probably hasn’t been a presidential biopic this tedious in 80 years, not since Henry King’s “Wilson” back in 1944. That once-notorious, now-forgotten box office dud somehow won five Oscars. “Reagan” probably won’t, not unless they introduce five new categories just for hagiographies. Or for unintentional comedies.
Leave a Reply