The Special Relationship - B+

On HBO

After the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, Tony Blair visited Washington DC to see how his Labour Party could similarly reverse over a decade of government conservative control in his home country. Following Clinton's election blueprint, Blair became the UK Prime Minister in 1997. Blair and Clinton liked each other immediately and successfully used each other domestically, diplomatically, and politically for the remainder of the Clinton presidency. Their triumphs included peace in Northern Ireland and a relatively peaceful solution in Kosovo. The rise of Blair and fall of Clinton (due to the Lewinsky affair) created an interesting dynamic. And the intelligence and political abilities of the 2 leaders made each fascinating both together and separately . . .

Michael Sheen is making a career by playing Tony Blair and is probably a bit better here than in The Queen since he's required to show a wider range of emotions. Some (like Darrell Hammond) have gotten Clinton's mannerisms better, but Dennis Quaid does an admirable job with the very familiar icon. More successful is Hope Davis who not only nails the voice of Hillary Clinton but portrays scorn and pain exceedingly well. The film serves as an informative refresher course of US and European history of the late 90s. The film spends a large amount of time revisiting the Lewinsky scandal and does a fairly good job at showing all sides and opinions.

Of course, the film takes some cheap shots at George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. But Blair's lauded and applauded remarks about Milosevic could have just as easily been applied to Saddam Hussein. Screenwriter Peter Morgan uses the benefit of foreknowledge to make Clinton seem prescient, a similar stunt he performed in The Queen. But thankfully, he doesn't really overdo it on the politics. B+