Strange choice for BBC 1 to broadcast this tonight more than two months after the presidential race but I guess if they showed this at the start of November everyone would have turned off in droves , so bored were they by the constant mud slinging going on in the race for the White House . I must admit that I was expecting too much from THE American PRESIDENT ( Insert your own political pun here ) since it was billed as a romantic comedy and that's what it is . It's a charming film , a naive film that was made in 1995 but watching it ten years after it was released I couldn't help falling out of my chair as the naivety takes centre stage
Michael Douglas plays American president Andrew Shepherd and he bares a physical resemblance to Bill Clinton while the script makes no bones that he's a democrat . President Shephard has a young daughter who is roughly about the same age Chelsea Clinton would have been in 1995 which means I for one couldn't think of this guy as being anyone other than slick Willie . That's why the screenplay negates a first lady , okay it might be important for the plot but could any actress find enough demonic skill to play a Hilary Clinton clone ? As for the plot itself it revolves a romance with a lobbyist and the widowed president . No doubt this was supposed to be touching in 1995 but this was before before " Monicagate " hit the headlines so it's quality entertainment now - I kept expecting Douglas to shout " I did not have sexual relations with that woman " . It's uncanny watching all this play out , it's like being in an alternative universe where environmental groups detest the democrats ( I'm sure they'd have preferred a Texas oil baron become president ) , the French president is guest of honour at the White House ( How times change ) and how a Donald Rumsfeld lookalike can become a presidential candidate for the republicans
If you like romantic comedies you'll like this movie . If you like the idea of alternative universes you will love this movie . If you're Bill Clinton you will think this is how life should have turned out
Michael Douglas plays American president Andrew Shepherd and he bares a physical resemblance to Bill Clinton while the script makes no bones that he's a democrat . President Shephard has a young daughter who is roughly about the same age Chelsea Clinton would have been in 1995 which means I for one couldn't think of this guy as being anyone other than slick Willie . That's why the screenplay negates a first lady , okay it might be important for the plot but could any actress find enough demonic skill to play a Hilary Clinton clone ? As for the plot itself it revolves a romance with a lobbyist and the widowed president . No doubt this was supposed to be touching in 1995 but this was before before " Monicagate " hit the headlines so it's quality entertainment now - I kept expecting Douglas to shout " I did not have sexual relations with that woman " . It's uncanny watching all this play out , it's like being in an alternative universe where environmental groups detest the democrats ( I'm sure they'd have preferred a Texas oil baron become president ) , the French president is guest of honour at the White House ( How times change ) and how a Donald Rumsfeld lookalike can become a presidential candidate for the republicans
If you like romantic comedies you'll like this movie . If you like the idea of alternative universes you will love this movie . If you're Bill Clinton you will think this is how life should have turned out