DICK
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Do you remember Deep Throat? No, not that Deep Throat. (Our audience
went into little ripples of nervous laughter every time the name was
mentioned.)
Is your knowledge of President Richard "Dick" Nixon and his Watergate
scandal detailed enough that you can recall all of the major
participants and their precise roles in this national tragedy?
If so, then you are in the target audience for Andrew Fleming's DICK --
assuming that you like teen satires.
With perhaps the most limited demographics for a movie this year, DICK
is going to have a hard time appealing to those with less than a
completely firm grasp of Watergate history. Most of the jokes work only
if you remember exactly how each of the people looked and acted. Saul
Rubinek, for example, does a masterful turn as Henry Kissinger, but his
performance is funny only if you can remember Kissinger well enough to
pick up the subtle nuances of Rubinek's mannerisms.
Andrew Fleming and Sheryl Longin's clever script posits that the
identity of the secret Deep Throat, who was sort of the Linda Tripp of
that scandal, was none other than the "official White House dog
walkers," two 15-year-olds named Betsy Jobs (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene
Lorenzo (Michelle Williams). The story answers other questions about
the scandal as well. The famous 18 1/2 minutes of blank tape was due to
Arlene's having left a love note and song (her rendition of the Olivia
Newton-John song "I Honestly Love You") to her would-be boyfriend,
President Nixon. He erased it figuring that even the hint of an affair
with a young White House aide could get him in more trouble than the
cover-up of a third-rate burglary.
Dan Hedaya plays President Nixon as a lovable ditz. Looking like a
cartoon version of the infamous president, Dan Hedaya gives a remarkably
sympathetic portrayal of a man riding through a political hurricane of
his own making. The president gives Betsy and Arlene some bogus jobs
when they stumble into the burglary and its cover-up.
Of the nice casting, none is better than Dave Foley (A BUG'S LIFE and
BLAST FROM THE PAST) as Bob Haldeman. Looking comically creepy, Foley
furrows his brow while interviewing Betsy and Arlene in order to
determine their intentions. "Ladies, when you think of your president,
do you think friendly thoughts?" he interrogates them across a
conference room table in the White House.
The humor tries its best to be topical. After Nixon resigns, the girls
figure that nothing like this will ever happen again. "It's going to be
different now," Arlene decides. "They'll never lie to us again," Betsy
agrees.
The period costumes of wildly colorful clothes for the kids and
awkwardly bad suits for the adults are a treat, but most of the movie is
just a curiosity piece. In between sporadically funny scenes, you keep
wondering why they made it at all.
Some of the choices for humor are quite bizarre. The film makes those
two journalistic icons, Bob Woodward (Will Ferrell) and Carl Bernstein
(Bruce McCulloch), into two comedic buffoons. Woodward and Bernstein as
a doofus duo? The mind boggles.
DICK runs 1:35. It is rated PG-13 for sex-related humor, drug content
and language and would be acceptable for kids 10 and up.
My son Jeffrey, age 10, gave it **, complaining that the plot was
stupid. He said that Dave Foley and the girls did a good job, and he
found the clothing interesting.
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Have I seen this movie: Yes
And what did I think: This is pretty fun spoof of the whole nixon-Watergate scandal with two clueless highschool girls in the middle of it. Betsy and Arlene (Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst) get to meet the president after they are seperated on a highschool tour of the whitehouse. Nixon takes a shine to them and hires them as the official Whitehouse dog walkers. There are lots of great gags in this movie and I was laughing throughout the whole thing. The girls make the staff at the Whitehouse cookies, which they accidently lace with marijuana. Needless to say, they are a big hit. Watching Nixon tripping is worth watching this alone. The girls develop a high school crush on the president and Arlene records her love for him on the infamous Whitehouse tapes that Nixon erases. It's a gag here, because he erases the tapes after he hears her on it. To have fun one night, they call reporters Woodward and Bernstein as a prank with knowledge of what's happening inside the Whitehouse. They agree to meet in an underground garage with names of staff members, but their dog eats it. They give themselves the codename.... what else, but Deep Throat after they hear their brother has gone to a certain movie of the same name. There are lots of great gags in this movie and the acting is great too. Kisten and Williams play the part well of two ditzy teenagers. While Dan Hedaya may not look exactly like Richard Nixon, he does a great job playing him and is a hoot to watch. The supporting roles are great too, like Saul Rubinek as Henry Kissinger, Jim Breuer as Nixon's lawyer, John Dean and Will Ferrell and Bruce McCulloch as a hilarious bickering Woodward and Bernstein. This is a fun movie to watch even if you are not familiar with the whole Watergate incident because it's a great comedy. Definately worth renting.
I give Dick 4 out of 5 stars
Review written January 14, 1999.
