DAVE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: nudity, sexual content, language

Rated:

Do you look like anyone famous? If you had the opportunity to be that person for a day, would you do it? This is the chance Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline) is given. Working in a hick community finding jobs for people, Dave spends his weekends impersonating President Bill Mitchell. He makes good money at it, and has fun in the meantime. The president is in need of a body double to take his place after an evening gala, and his bodyguard is sent to scout out someone who can pull it off. He runs across Dave at a used car lot and immediately signs him up, giving him a spiel about how the country needs him. With the chance to earn some money, and live out his dream of "being" the president for a half hour, Dave isn't about to say no.

Things don't exactly go as planned. The president suffers a stroke while in bed with his beautiful blonde secretary, and it's unlikely that he'll ever recover. His top aids Bob Alexander (Frank Langella) and Allen Reed (Kevin Dunn) are faced with near-certain disaster. The last thing Bob wants is for the vice president to take command. He would rather rule the roost from the background, and Dave is the ideal puppet. He's convincing. Everyone immediately assumes he's the president. The one person who could blow his cover is the president's beautiful wife Ellen (Sigourney Weaver), but the couple haven't shared communication, much less bedrooms, in six months. She keeps up the pretense of marriage just so the tabloids won't talk. It's illegal, unethical, and dangerous, but Bob convinces Dave that he is needed to serve his country, that the president will eventually be back on two feet, and that he will step into Mitchell's shoes with ease.

Bob's plan is to incriminate the vice president on insider trading, then demand his impeachment and have "President" Mitchell nominate him as a replacement. When he's been sworn in and a sufficient amount of time has passed, the president will have another stroke, this one very serious, Dave will go home, and Bob will control the White House. What he doesn't expect is that the "new and improved" president is winning over the country by kissing one baby at a time. He's likable, eccentric, popular, and has his "wife" wondering what happened. Eventually Dave will come to realize that with power comes responsibility... and it doesn't help that he's falling in love with Ellen. The movie could be extremely clichéd but turns out very cute. It's genuinely funny without ever becoming too preposterous.

Weaver and Kline are adorable together. They have nice chemistry. Add to that Langella's steely-eyed performance, and you have a fine cast, with supporting cast made up of Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley, Charles Grodin, Faith Price, and Bonnie Hunt, along with cameos by popular television and news personalities, and various senators from Washington. The film never comes right out and says which party the president is affiliated with. Dave's politics are Republican in nature, but his wife's are very liberal. There are a few mild jibes at Republicans, but for the most part its bipartisan in an effort to please both sides. I like the film for not being overt in its politics, and taking the infinitive not to bash one side or the other. There are some coy references to the Clinton administration, impeachment, and underground Wall Street trading. Content isn't too horrible, but still bears scrutiny. The president is a womanizer with a wandering eye. Early on he's seen having sex with his secretary (moaning and some movement is present, before he has a stroke).

Ellen storms in on her "husband" taking a shower, and there are several instances of backside nudity through a steamy shower door; it's intimated that she glances at his crotch. Language is present, the worst being several uses of s--t, and two abuses of Jesus' name. There were several things I liked about the film, particularly the fact that Ellen and Dave share an entirely innocent relationship. They don't take advantage of their mock marriage to become physical, and even wait to kiss until after the president has died. The bad guys are all taken down, and Dave has a marvelous speech about what it means to be the president toward the end of the film that outlines that his first priority from the Oval Office should be the people that he represents, not his own best interests. It's well worth watching, if you can skip over the few negative elements.

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