Review of The Special Relationship (2010) by Geoff C — 05 Jan 2011

Where to start? I don't know. The film was pretty damn awful. Having seen "The Queen" I expected this film to be at least watchable. It was not. The conversations in the film were totally unrealistic. Obviously, they would have talked politics in real life, but Clinton (unconvincingly played by Dennis Quaid) pitched left wing politics to Blair (Played decently by Michael Sheen) like he was a voter. Why would Clinton preach so obsessively to the choir?

Another beef with the film I had was Dennis Quaid. It is obvious that he based his performance off of Clinton's speeches where the tone and rhythm of his voice obviously wouldn't be conversational. Watching Quaid act, even in intimate settings was like watching Clinton give a speech. As much as I love Dennis Quaid, he dropped the ball big time here. Imagine a movie where MLK Jr. used his speech voice during intimiate conversations with Coretta Scott King? Stupid, it would be!

Now onto the story line of the film- Basically what they did, was watch a whole bunch of news stories from the 1990s- and inferred details from them. The plot was basically dramatization of news reports, and some just obvious speculation. An inappropriate amount of the film relied on news stories to shape the narrative. Archive footage should support the film- not act as a crutch.

This ranks only notches above "W" and "The Reagans".

D-.