The Special Relationship

The movie starts with Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) coming over to America to learn from their experiences and try to reinvigorate the Labour Party. He develops a close relationship with Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid). Then the relationships get more complex, and the movie ends with a press briefing from the real George W and Blair.

The movie is looking at this mostly from the point of view of Tony Blair. He starts off as an almost giddy schoolboy in awe of the great Bill Clinton. Michael Sheen is the best thing in this movie. He is probably the best person for the role. His superior acting skills is on full display. Dennis Quaid is not as good. He comes off as mimicking the president. Hope Davis is quite effective as Hillary. It's a pretty good recitation of the Clinton-Blair years concentrating on Northern Ireland, Lewinsky, and Kosovo from a 90 minutes HBO TV movie.

As we are about to attack another country under the guise of protecting human rights, this HBO movie hits the spot. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, two fake progressives, shape the world according to their interests and political advantages. Tony Blair, as portrayed in this flick, is a naive, almost comical in his ineptitude, character. After all the unfulfilled promises and outright lies it is not surprising how unpopular he became in Great Britain. Blindly following both American presidents, but all this time building his own legacy. And he built it all right. When he left the office his approval rating was embarrassingly low. After the horrendous war campaign waged on Serbia in 1999 ( based on intentionally inflated numbers of victims, that were never found), and attack on Iraq( based on non-existing WMD), Mr. Blair is lucky that he didn't end up on trial for war crimes himself. God help us all with leaders like these people.

So, as far as the film stands as a film, it is ok, decent acting, some nice shots all in all, a film.

Now, the reality of what happened is not portrayed here, Tony Blair seems to be the generic good guy just trying his best whereas in the real world the only reason these men aren't in prison for war crimes is because we would then have to openly admit that we invaded a country based on lies, which will never happen.

So if you can watch this as a work of fiction it becomes much better, but essentially just a film to stroke the ego's of war criminals to try and justify their actions.

It seems movie reviews of this work are subject to the politics and realities of the event rather than the recreation and acting of this surprisingly good story. Dennis Quaid, who I've never seen do anything above mediocre work usually just mirroring himself, was just outstanding as Bill Clinton. I think it is by far his best piece of acting to date. Equally so for Michael Sheen who I am less familiar with. Both men did a good job of presenting the personalities, complexities and subtleties of each leader. "Hillary Clinton" didn't just look the part - she was Hillary (at least what we know of her). Bill was presented as the smart politician sleaze ball and failed leader of lost promise that he was. Tony Blair is presented as both a promising leader and sympathetic character doomed to eventual destruction. The story was able to project all this in its short 90 minutes. On top of that it was educational to boot. Good job!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie on DVD and draw the obvious comparison with Michael Sheens performance of tony Blair in the 'Queen' and of how Blair was portrayed in 'The Ghost Writer'. 'W' also springs to mind about George Bush and of course Peter Morgans other recent work about a political leader, 'Frost Nixon'.

At first I was watching a political comedy where Tony Blair was destined to become an Americanized Mr Bean. Dennis Quaid, as professional an actor as he is, was way too overpowering in the role of Bill Clinton who I am sure is a lot more gentler as a guy than the film portrayed.

The film ends up with us feeling a degree of sympathy for both Blair and particularly Clinton, though I doubt the reality of this. How special this relationship was compared with Thatcher and Regan or Blair and Bush, its difficult to say but it was absorbing to see the facts put through the 'mill' and an almost objective appraisal given of the problems raised by both leaders. Was the French President Chirac really that pompous? Were the leaders that close on a personal level? Actually, I think Tony Blair must be thinking himself - gosh that guy Sheen acts me than I do myself. He is certainly a very likable 'duplicate' of the real thing and perhaps a more acceptable version. a lot of recent history is dealt with in this 90 minute movie, as others have commented, nothing at all with that, the film is useful if only for English education in hearing English and American language side by side and a terrific dose of history as I have mentioned.

Might get Michael Sheen a much deserved Oscar nomination. As for Dennis Quaid, as AL gore might have once said - you are NO Bill Clinton! Got to say the two ladies playing the wives of Cheree and Hilary are almost comedy like and the script to some extent is more appropriate to a TV sit com than a movie suitable for DVD or cinema release.

Not knocking the movie. Its very watchable, not in any way tedious, quite funny at times and keep the kids out of the room at certain times when sexual innuendos are mentioned with reference to Bill Clinton's 'you know what'! Enjoy!