REAGAN: 2 ½ STARS. “a larger-than-life character who always beat the odds.”
SYNOPSIS: Narrated by former KGB agent Viktor Ivanov, “Reagan,” a new biopic starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, follows Ronald Reagan from childhood to Hollywood fame to his time in the oval office and an assassination attempt.
CAST: Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, Robert Davi, Lesley-Anne Down and Jon Voight. Directed by Sean McNamara (who, at age 18 worked as a sound engineer during filming of Reagan’s 1981 inauguration ceremony).
REVIEW: Into our current unpredictable partisan era comes an old-fashioned movie that harkens back to, if not a simpler time, then at least a time when there was some nuance left in political debate.
Not that “Reagan” is a movie of great nuance.
A cradle-to-almost-grave look at one of the most popular presidents of the Twentieth Century, it covers a lot of ground and does so respectfully—it sometimes feels like director Sean McNamara must have been standing at attention while shooting—but at a gallop that doesn’t allow for deep exploration.
Instead, it plays like a greatest hits of Reagan’s life. I was left wondering if a more focused look, concentrating on only his Hollywood activism, or his time in the Oval Office, or his escalation of the Cold War, may have provided opportunities for greater insight.
In an unexpected twist, the film is narrated by Jon Voight as former KGB officer Viktor Ivanov. Providing details gleaned from years of Russian surveillance, it’s an interesting idea to allow one of Reagan’s enemies to act as tour guide, but the narration doesn’t add much. It’s intrusive and overbearing, an exposition dump, that acts only as a page turner to the next chapter of the story without providing substance.
Quaid, who plays the character in all the iterations of its adult life, nails Reagan’s distinctive voice and physicality. He brings a theatrical flair to the performance, playing Reagan as a larger-than-life character who always beat the odds.
There is no doubt that Reagan led a remarkable life, but “Reagan” is not a remarkable movie. The spotty history—there’s no mention, for instance, of his position on gay marriage or inaction during the AIDS epidemic—and cinematic glow applied to every frame suggests hagiography more than a simple biography, but Quaid does good work even if “Reagan” feels like a movie a substitute teacher would run in history class.
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