Kevin Kline and the New(ish) Deal

1001 Movies To See Before Your Netflix Subscription Dies, Part 42
Ivan Reitman (director), Dave

William Harrison Mitchell and Dave Kovic live in completely different worlds. Though both occupy Washington, DC, President Mitchell is an angry, dishonest schemer. Humble Dave, by contrast, runs a jobs placement agency in Georgetown, and moonlights as a President Mitchell impersonator. This sideline draws official attention, because the White House needs a body double to protect Mitchell’s extramarital affairs.

Czech-born Canadian director Ivan Reitman spent the 1980s directing “Little Guy Makes Good” movies like Stripes and Ghostbusters. The 1990s, however, shifted his outlook—this movie dropped just four months into Bill Clinton’s presidency. Though Clinton superficially looked like an Ivan Reitman character come to life, his infidelities were already widely rumored, and he had a notorious off-camera temper. Reitman latched onto this duality and ran.

Dave (Kevin Kline), a natural ham with a big heart, thinks his top-level assignment is a one-night stand. However, President Mitchell (also Kline) suffers a catastrophic stroke mid-coitus with a junior White House staffer. So Chief of Staff Bob Alexander (Frank Langella) contracts Dave as the President’s stand-in, to avoid scandal. Alexander successfully corralled Mitchell’s ambitions and anger for years, so he figures a schmendrick like Dave will be easy.

White House officials take Dave on official photo ops, letting his winning smile and telegenic charm smooth passage of party-line bills. Dave is, at first, happy to let Alexander run the actual presidency. However, Alexander’s ham-fisted budget cuts soon jeopardize a project close to Dave’s heart. Turns out, Dave actually believes the optimistic message behind which President Mitchell got elected; he has no patience with Washington’s official cynicism.

So Dave does what comes naturally to him: he enlists the camera’s aide. While Bob Alexander writes policy in a locked room (and President Mitchell lies comatose in an unlisted clinic), Dave conducts Cabinet-level log-rolling sessions on primetime network news. With all American watching, Dave soon swings White House policy to match the official rhetoric. Alexander, long the power behind the throne, finds himself out in the cold.

This movie’s comments about President Clinton’s personal life, some of which seem almost prescient, could easily overshadow its comments about his policies. Clinton secured the Democratic nomination, in 1992, partly by promising to deepen and extend President Reagan’s draconian cuts to America’s social safety net. Given Clinton’s “Man From Hope” oratory, it’s easy to forget he promised “the end of welfare as we know it” during his longshot primary campaign.

Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver in Ivan Reitman's Dave

Nobody seems more surprised by Dave’s sifting priorities than First Lady Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver). Though the Mitchells maintained a unified front for the camera, Bill’s infidelities, and his willingness to compromise his principles, long since drove Ellen away. They remain married because it serves their shared ambitions: he wants power, she wants to do actual good in the world. Ellen, unaware of Bill’s stroke, suspects Dave is a chameleon.

The brewing conflict between Dave and Alexander soon reaches boiling point. Alexander has blackmail data enough to see Dave arrested, but Dave has the nation’s sympathies. Trapped in a cycle of mutually assured destruction, we only wonder which will unseat the other first. Chronic liar Alexander has the ability to destroy Dave simply by telling the truth; pathologically honest Dave finds himself keeping secrets almost as well as Alexander.

Reitman heightens his political realism by incorporating real-life figures from 1990s politics. Politicians like Tip O’Neill, Tom Harkin, and Paul Simon (not that one), provide unscripted commentary on Dave’s New Deal-esque policies. Meanwhile, outside commentators like Jay Leno and the entire McLaughlin Group provide the media response. These make it clear that Dave’s candid politics would face stark criticism in real Washington.

There’s also a critical subtext to this movie: it’s easy to sympathize with Dave. He’s uncontrived, loves children and puppies, and fights for his beliefs. But he didn’t get elected President; Bill Mitchell did, with his moral compromises and smoke-filled rooms. We like Dave, but Reitman asks us: would we vote for him? Considering what candidates we Americans habitually support, Reitman’s answer is implicit, but painfully obvious.

We Americans love bellyaching about how politicians’ rhetoric doesn’t match their actions. But we do nothing about it. Ivan Reitman throws that back on us. Dave Kovic actually accomplishes the promises we Americans claim to approve, but accomplishes them under Bill Mitchell’s name. American politics, Reitman implies, requires professionals with Jekyll-and-Hyde personalities. As long as that’s what we vote for, that’s what we’ll get.

Yet the final scene suggests we aren’t doomed. We could change; Reitman encourages us to do so.