Review of The Special Relationship (2010) by Oscar M — 20 Feb 2011

As with Morgan's first two Blair films, believability is high on the agenda here whether it be Michael Sheen's now inch-perfect characterisation of the former Prime Minister, the sight of a British politician beginning to swoon at the sight of Washington D.C. or the contrast between the elegance of a White House Presidential suite and the family kitchen at Downing Street.

Covering Northern Ireland peace talks, Monica Lewinski, Kosovo and culminating with the 2000 American election, Morgan's widest spanning script occasionally feels pressured by the demands of an HBO timeslot but manages to be engaging throughout whether the scene in question be a rousing call to war in the Commons (no, not that one) or the intimate moment when Dennis Quaid's Clinton lies to his wife about the affair for the first time.

Like The Queen before it, this film has a sympathetic view of Blair from the off though this is somewhat tempered towards the end when a cynical Clinton suggests the Prime Minister is no longer a progressive centre-left politician, and perhaps never was.

The effect of Iraq on the script was perhaps inevitable and some of the Kosovo related lines are arguably blunter than the script deserves but it would behove many to remember that the Labour administration's first military actions were not post 9/11 and the vehemence with which Blair addresses the issue (and eventually forces Clinton to support) is very familiar and an interesting back drop to what we know now.

The Special relationship will have a limited audience. In the UK some viewers will have to hold prejudice aside for 90 minutes. In America it will largely depend on whether or not viewers can remember who Tony Blair is. That being said it is an engaging political story that never becomes lost in the grandiose events it covers and left this reviewer hungry for more. Tony Blair did, after all, continue past the honeymoon.