Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan Hedaya, Will Ferrell, Bruce McCulloch, Teri Garr, Dave Foley, Jim Breuer, Saul Rubinek
Director: Andrew Fleming
Producer: Gale Anne Hurd
Screenplay: Andrew Fleming & Sheryl Longin
Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski
Music: John Debney
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
The premise for Dick, Andrew Fleming's juvenile political satire set in the early 1970s, sounds promising. Two teenage girls, Betsy Jobs (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene Lorenzo (Michelle Williams), accidentally become enmeshed in the Watergate scandal when their jobs as "official White House dog walkers" place them in and around President Nixon (Dan Hedaya) and his advisors. Although initially infatuated with Nixon and flattered by his attention, the girls eventually turn against the president when they find out he's not such a nice guy. Soon, they are meeting with Bob Woodward (Will Ferrell) and Carl Bernstein (Bruce McCulloch) in darkened parking garages, giggling as they use the moniker "Deep Throat."
Unfortunately, the premise is about all this film has going for it. Opportunities for genuinely biting satire are overlooked. Dick aims for least-common denominator humor, with nearly every joke being more obvious than Nixon's lies. The setup is frequently clumsy and the delivery isn't any better. This is the Dumb and Dumber of political comedy. The film's dubious claim to originality is its attempt to weave a pair of fictional characters into the Watergate tapestry in such a way that they become responsible for everything from SALT to Nixon's ouster. There's a problem, though: this idea sounds more clever than it actually is. There's no elegance in the way these incidents are tied together, and, while credibility shouldn't be an issue in an airheaded comedy like this, the sheer stupidity of some of the scenarios proposed by Dick caused me to wince when I should have been laughing.
Every character - Nixon, Liddy (Harry Shearer, looking like Inspector Clouseau), Haldeman (Dave Foley), Dean (Jim Breuer), Kissinger (Saul Rubinek), Woodward, Bernstein, Betsy, and Arlene - is presented as an utter moron. While this evens the playing field as far as political fairness goes, it becomes tiresome, especially since the level of writing is on the same plateau as the intelligence of the characters. This is not a smartly scripted film; screenwriters Fleming and Sheryl Longin are more interested in scattering Dick jokes than in developing the material into something memorable.
Dick appears to be aimed more at thirteen and fourteen year olds than at those who lived through Watergate. (That's probably why the historical allusions are so obvious - one could pick them up after having read a text book or having watched Nixon and All the President's Men.) It's also worth noting that the era of the early-'70s represented here has less to do with reality than with nostalgic hyperbole. The setting is established primarily through outrageous clothes, superfluous pop references (such as TV commercials with Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin), and the same tired disco songs that show up in every '70s movie.
The most energetic performance belongs to Kirsten Dunst, who plays the role of Betsy with cheerleader-like enthusiasm. The part of a ditzy teen can't be much of a stretch for the actress, since it's no different from the one she essayed in Drop Dead Gorgeous, which is still unspooling in multiplexes across the country. Michelle Williams, best known as one of the stars of TV's "Dawson's Creek," is appealing, but not a standout. Of the historical figures being represented, only Dan Hedaya deserves to be singled out. Despite his physical dissimilarity to Nixon, Hedaya obviously worked hard to mimic the late President's voice and mannerisms. Had he looked a little more like his real-life counterpart, he would have been convincing.
Some of the best political satires of the decade include Dave, Bulworth, and Wag the Dog. With better writing, Dick might have aspired to that level, but the finished product comes closer to an overlong Saturday Night Live skit (the inclusion of SNL personalities Will Ferrell, Bruce McCulloch, Ana Gasteyer, Jim Breuer, and Harry Shearer only deepens the impression). Dick is essentially a one-joke movie, and that joke ceases to be amusing long before "Dancing Queen" starts playing over the end credits.
© 1999 James Berardinelli