Throughout
December, we will be putting the spotlight on one of my favorite stars of all
time, John Travolta. Hopefully, this
will be a good way to catch up on a few of his films I’ve missed and fill in
some gaps from his filmography. I hope
this will put you all in the holiday spirit and have you singing “Tra-La-La-La-La
La-Volta!”
The
Travoltassance lasted from 1994 to 2000.
That of course, was the time John Travolta’s career reignited with the
success of Pulp Fiction till the time he made the infamous turkey Battlefield
Earth. Sure, he made some good movies
past 2000, but his career just wasn’t the same afterwards. Primary Colors was made near the tail end of
the Travoltassance. In this time in his
career, he could work with top notch director (Mike Nichols) and an
Oscar-winning supporting cast (Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates). Now he’s so ingrained in the DTV world, it
hardly seems possible he could achieve that again. Still, it’s a
good reminder of how great he could be given the right role, script, and
director.
Travolta
plays Governor Stanton, who of course, is supposed to be Bill Clinton. A young idealistic staffer (Adrian Lester)
joins his team with high hopes for a better future for himself and his
country. He naturally gets caught up in
all the ballyhoo as Stanton goes from being a longshot underdog to a serious
contender for the Democratic nomination.
I
had avoided this for years, mostly because I’m not really into politics and Clinton
seemed like a much-too obvious target for ridicule. Nichols is smart enough to make the film less
about the issues and focuses more on the political bobbing and weaving among the
candidates on the campaign trail. He
takes a shine to Stanton’s ramshackle crew of oddballs who run the campaign,
and even though they are painted in broad strokes, they’re enormously fun to
watch. Bates is a hoot, but it’s Rob
Reiner who gets the biggest laughs in a hilarious cameo as a talk radio show
host.
These
supporting characters kind of come and go, but Lester’s character is the only
real constant, which is a shame as he’s less a character and more of a human
moral compass. When Stanton is down and
out, he’s there to cheer him on. When
Stanton shows a more sinister nature, he takes him to task for not living up to
his potential.
Even
though the filmmakers aren’t afraid to show Clint… I mean… Stanton in a poor
light at times, it’s not nearly as savage as it could’ve been. They just paint him as a flawed man who’s a
straight shooter that has good ideas, and charisma to spare, but just can’t
seem to keep his dick in his pants. As
such, Travolta delivers a fine performance.
He does a dead-on Clinton impression, but leaves a little room for
dramatic interpretation, giving you a fully realized character and not a
caricature. He’s especially good in his
scenes with Thompson, who captures Hillary’s power-hungry zeal perfectly, while
still giving her a measure of humanity.
It’s
Bates though who gets the best line of the movie when she calls a tabloid
reporter, “A wet fart of a human turd”.
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