An upstart politician is seen with a woman who is not his wife. A scandal ensues. Would-be presidential candidate resigns amidst the controversy. Just because a story happens doesn’t mean you must make a movie about it. At best, Jason Reitman’s (Up in the Air, Young Adult) Gary Hart biopic should have been a straight-to-cable drop. But really, a 60-minute documentary on The History Channel or something would have sufficed. That’s not to say The Front Runner was a bad movie. Because it wasn’t, but it wasn’t a movie we needed. Reitman, a fantastic yet underrated director fresh off the incredibly impressive Tully with also such films as Juno and Thank You For Smoking among his credits, had no business involving himself with a movie that, no matter what he did, wasn’t going to register with the critics or with the audiences because:

1. Even though it is a 30-year story at the time of its release, it is one everyone knows.
2. It’s a story that we, as a society, tried to make into some huge deal, whereas 30 years later, we realize that a politician cheating on his wife is something that hardly bats an eye.
3. It’s a story that raises some issues related to morality and tries to be a little preachy in a day and age when none of us are interested in hearing and seeing preachy, especially from a story that is trying to be relevant in today’s society but does feel 30 years old.

Hugh Jackman (Prisoners, Les Miserables) had no business playing the part of Gary Hart, the forward-thinking Colorado senator turned disgraced Democratic Presidential hopeful after being caught having an extramarital affair with Donna Rice (Sara Paxton – Love & Air Sex, The Innkeepers), a woman some 20 years his junior who he met for the first time on New Year’s Eve 1986, just as he was gaining steam in the political landscape. Jackman (who has never really had an extended downturn in his career) was fresh off two of his top performances ever, capping his Wolverine character in 2017’s Logan, followed up with his role as P.T. Barnum in the fan-favorite The Greatest Showman. Thinking that he even entertained the idea of playing Hart is head-scratching.

First of all, this isn’t 1988. It’s 2019. There might have been a time when this movie would have been relevant and maybe even appreciated, but that’s not anymore. It didn’t matter how well this movie was executed (not that it was). But the idea that a single affair scandal could derail a career is laughable. I mean, if you look at the character living in the White House in 2019 and all of the shame associated with his various scandals, both sexual and non-sexual. I often tell people that you must mess with kids or steal money to get fired from many agencies and organizations in this country. Affairs barely bat an eye, if they even do that. You might get an inquiry before details are swept under the rug. And it’s not just with congressmen and congresswomen. It’s in every walk of life. Don’t touch the kids. Don’t touch the funds. Everything else is negotiable. But this isn’t an essay to discuss what is morally right or wrong in the United States of America and how those who make our laws are often breaking our laws.

The Front Runner follows Hart’s campaign during his presidential primary in early 1987. In the race to be the Democratic nominee and the (probable) eventual President of the United States, Hart was the heavy favorite over eventual Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and even future vice presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden. Hart successfully won over America with his seemingly stable family life with Lee (Vera Farmiga – The Conjuring, Up in the Air), his wife of 29 years, and their two children. Sure, there were rumors, but as Lee (who was presented as someone who looked the other way) told her husband more than once, “Just don’t embarrass me.” More importantly, at least in the political landscape, was Hart’s ability to communicate with the American people. He was able to break down complex governmental geekspeak into terminology that the average American understood.

But when The Miami Herald got wind of an anonymous tip that they eventually followed up on, Hart’s three-week power swing through the southeast parts of the United States to sweep up states previously thought unwinnable quickly was moved to the backburner when newspaper journalists showed up to his rental in Washington DC and scored pictures of him coming and going with a woman who was not his wife. And like any good candidate would, Hart quickly denied the affair, even bringing up the idea that there was a backdoor in his townhome that the reporters were not scoping out, and that was how Donna left his place, not the next day, but 10 minutes after stopping in to discuss a quick political matter.

Plot 7/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 6/10
Acting 7/10
Screenplay 6/10
Directing 6/10
Cinematography 7/10
Sound 5/10
Hook and Reel 7/10
Universal Relevance 7/10
61%

D-

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