Apollo Movie Guide's Review of Running Mates

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Running Mates

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Readers' Rating: 66/100

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Running Mates

If ever there was a prototype made-for-television movie – with all the strengths and weaknesses of the type – then this is it. In typical made-for-television fashion, Running Mates tries hard to be topical, is occasionally right on the mark, but too often sags under the weight of innumerable characters and too little attention to keeping the script sharply focused. This is by no means a bad movie, and is a very credible example of its type. But if only the makers of this and other cable television fare didn’t feel the need to compensate for the small screen by packing in so many characters and go-nowhere subplots, these movies would be a whole lot more successful.

Real-life high profile Republican Tom Selleck plays Michigan’s Governor James Reynolds Pryce, who is a shoo-in for the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States. He’s a decent fellow – a ‘different’ kind of politician, who’s honest, caring and really listens to people. The movie follows the run-up to his nomination, focusing on his choice of a running mate – will it be a well-connected scumball ( Bruce McGill) who is in the pocket of big money special interests, or a controversial free-speaking and independent-minded outsider ( Bob Gunton)?

Just as important as the ‘big P’ political story are various threads of ‘small P’ relationship politics. These are too numerous to list, and most of them revolve around women that our would-be president has bedded in the past. But fear not – since his marriage, he’s been true to his wife Jenny (Nancy Travis) – or at least that’s what we’re led to believe in this portrait of a squeaky-clean politician. The past loves include his campaign manager Lauren Hartman ( Laura Linney), an idealist who chose her love of politics over her love of Pryce, the flighty Hollywood mainstay Shawna Morgan ( Teri Hatcher), who is dedicated to recruiting Pryce supporters among the stars, and the wife of a senator, Meg Gable ( Faye Dunaway), who has dreams of her husband becoming Pryce’s running mate.

There’s a lot going on, and some of it borders on intelligent commentary on the U.S. political system. This is aided by a reasonably strong performance by Linney, and one by Selleck that might have been a big positive, if the script had allowed him to convey more of who Pryce really is. This shallowness harms the entire production, as the movie flits from one subplot to another, never getting deep enough into anything to entirely satisfy. There are some funny scenes, such as those featuring a pair of media types pitching their goofy advertising ideas to Pryce, and then there are a lot of scenes that go nowhere. Do we really need a throwaway subplot about the political convention’s youngest delegate? And does virtually every woman in the movie really need to be one of Pryce’s former lovers?

Although it’s passable entertainment, these weaknesses – plus a predictably sappy ending – prevent Running Mates from winning. I suppose they can always try again in four years time.

Brian Webster

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