Dennis Quaid Leads Glossy Biopic of Former President

Twenty years ago, Ronald Reagan became the subject of The Reagans. Starring James Brolin and a superb Judy Davis, the very controversial TV movie elicited scornful reactions from Reagan acolytes and barely made it to the airwaves. But no one should have similar reactions to the reverential Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as the former president. No one, that is, except people looking for a sharp, lively piece of cinematic entertainment.

This film, from a script by Howard Klausner and directed by Sean McNamara, tries to cover all of the politician’s life from his childhood to his death from Alzheimer’s, but it skims along the surface during all of the decades. It begins with the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981, just a few months after his inauguration, and then jumps backward and forward in time, befitting the currently chic — and often unrewarding — non-linear storytelling approach.

Perhaps the strangest choice is to have the story told by a former KGB officer (Jon Voight) who gives Reagan (whom he calls “the Crusader”) credit — or blame — for the downfall of the Soviet Union during the late 1980s and early 1990s. No mention is made of the return to KGB values under the reign of Vladimir Putin, perhaps because that would complicate the story and displease the nostalgic moviegoers presumed to be the primary audience for this glossy tribute to Reagan.

Most of the major events in Reagan’s life are covered, but few of them are recounted in an incisive fashion. We see him when he was president of SAG and got involved in the anti-Communist frenzy of the late 1940s. In one scene, he even banters with the most famous of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten, Dalton Trumbo (Sean Hankinson), and he is enlisted by studio chief Jack Warner (a miscast Kevin Dillon) to help root out the Red threat in Hollywood. There are a few scenes with Reagan’s first wife, actress Jane Wyman — but she’s made out to be a shallow shrew in order to build up his lifelong bond with Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller), which leaves Wyman actress Mena Suvari with nothing to play. An end title informs us that Wyman ended up voting for her ex-husband twice when he ran for President. How would anyone know? Aren’t ballots supposed to be secret?

Although the movie runs a hefty 140 minutes, it often seems rushed as it checks off the highlights (and some lowlights, including Reagan’s gig as a minor Vegas performer in the 1950s): California governor for eight years, defeat at the 1976 Republican convention where he challenged Gerald Ford, then his resurgence in 1980 and his landslide victory in 1984. Some of the controversies of his time in the Oval Office, notably the Iran-Contra scandal, are mentioned but sped over in about two or three minutes. We also see AIDS activists in one brief snippet, but there is no commentary on Reagan’s long silence during the AIDS crisis of the ’80s. And there is no mention of the role that Reagan played, both as California governor and as president, in shutting mental hospitals, which certainly contributed to the growing homelessness crisis.

The highlight of the film, and perhaps of Reagan’s life, was his 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It was indeed a rousing moment, but one might question whether that alone caused Communism to topple. Mikhail Gorbachev himself, portrayed sympathetically by Oleg Krupa, probably played a role here.

Quaid has been given puffy, rouged cheeks to match the familiar image of Reagan, and while his performance is competent, he never matches the charm that he conveyed in The Right Stuff or Great Balls of Fire. Miller takes a very different approach from the one that Davis took in The Reagans, where she portrayed Nancy as Lady Macbeth in high heels. Nevertheless, Miller makes an appealing presence and does convince us of Nancy’s lifelong devotion to her Ronnie. Other members of the very large cast don’t have enough to do to make much of an impression. It is nice to see Lesley-Anne Down as Margaret Thatcher, some 45 years after her starring roles back in the 1970s.

Technical credits are solid. Scenes filmed at the Reagan ranch in the Santa Barbara area have a special luster. The most moving moments, however, are the newsreel shots of Reagan’s funeral, which Thatcher and Gorbachev attended. No screenwriter was able to meddle with that footage.