Sunday, March 6, 2011

Dave

It begins with the premise that the White House employs lookalikes to help the president with his hectic schedule. We then meet Dave, an earnest goofy Mr. Smith type who works in a temp agency, likes musicals, specializes in impersonations, and just so happens to be a dead ringer for the commander in chief. Soon he is filling in as his double when the less than scrupulous leader has a debilitating stroke and Dave is forced to fill his considerable shoes. Although the President's advisers have their own plans, Dave has plans of his own. Directed by Ivan Reitman, Dave is fun, sweet, and corny in a Capra-like way. It's Washington locations feel authentic, and the film does a good job at making you forget plot holes, but I found Dave to be a little to preachy. The acting isn't bad it's just misguided: Kevin Kline is too good and not conflicted enough in the lead, Sigourney Weaver is too icy as the First Lady, and Frank Langella is too evil as a top advisor. These one dimensional characters may be what you want for this type of film but I found it to hurt it. It's not to say that it's a bad film, in fact it's very good in parts and I especially liked the ending. It just had one too many sentimental moments and speeches as well as uninteresting characters.