Bookshelf:

The American President

I've been busy with all kinds of things lately. Getting wrapped up in my stuff without a whole lot of time to spend writing journal entries. As usual, when I have time to write there's not a lot to write about, and when I'm doing stuff, I don't have time to write!

Actually, truth to tell I spent most of Saturday on the computer - but doing stuff. Making inroads in preparing for my fantasy baseball draft, and - more importantly - updating my stash of comic books for sale, since I want to cart most of them over to my dealer soon to see if he'll take the bulk of them off my hands for a reasonable price. With seven "longboxes" worth of books in my "to sell" stash, this was a nontrivial task!

I also took care of many chores around the house, and generally didn't go outside all day, despite it being a lovely day outside (sunny and 70s).

I finally did go out in the evening to meet Lucy for dinner, though. We went to Amber India in Mountain View, an outstanding Indian restaurant (it even passes the rigorous Subrata test), and I had my usual Butter Chicken (which is exactly as decadent as it sounds). We also tromped into downtown Mountain View and did some book shopping, bought some Gelato, and sat outside for a couple of hours commenting on the long line of people waiting to get into the nearby Irish Pub (while the dance club across the street languished lineless).

A fine evening.

Today I headed up to visit my friend John. He's been getting over foot surgery for the last month, and wanted to go out for a moderate hike this weekend. Having not been on a serious hike for a while (sorry Monique, the Golden Gate Bridge doesn't have enough of a vertical component!), I suggested I come up to join him.

So off we tromped to a park a few miles from his apartment, where we hiked around for about an hour and a half. The sun was fierce, and it must have topped 80 degrees at mid-afternoon! But despite all the sweating and a slight chafing of my little toes in my hiking boots, it was a great time. Hiking is one of the great fringe benefits of living in the Bay Area.

For the rest of the afternoon we watched a few episode of Sports Night that I brought over, hung out at Cafe Borrone for an hour or so, and went to my favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner (thus effectively nullifying the benefits of the hike, I think).

We always have a good time hanging out. We don't do it as much as I'd thought we would when I moved out here, though the fact that we live 30 miles apart might have something to do with it...

Since John says he can't figure out what he thinks of a movie until I review it (I've been controlling his mind in this way for about ten years, ever since our rec.arts.startrek days on USENET), here's my review of the movie we watched tonight, The American President (1995):

Michael Douglas plays widowed President Andrew Shepherd. One year before re-election, he wants to pass a crime bill to run on, and thinks he has a chance with his 63% approval rating. Then he meets Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), an environmental lobbyist, with whom he makes a pact that if her group can deliver 24 votes on a tough emissions bill, he'll send it to congress with his backing. But along the way, Andy decides he's interested in Sydney socially, and asks her to be his date to a state dinner. Naturally it's not long before she's "the President's girlfriend", and Senator Bob Rumson (a nearly-unrecognizable Richard Dreyfuss) is running against Shepherd on a "morals" campaign that Shepherd declines to get mixed up in.

The American President was written by Aaron Sorkin, creator of Sports Night and (more to the point) The West Wing, and the script is readily recognizable as Sorkin's, right down to the quotable speeches, the long multi-person dialogues as the camera travels down multiple hallways, and extensive use of the word "thing". Heck, it's even got Martin Sheen as Shepherd's Chief of Staff! That Rob Reiner directed the film seems beside the point; to anyone who's seen The West Wing, it's clearly Sorkin's baby.

The strangest thing about the film, though, is Michael Douglas. About fifteen minutes into the film I muttered, "Is it just me, or is Douglas blowing all his lines?" John, aghast, remarked that Douglas had been nominated for an Oscar for the role (actually, it was a Golden Globe). Nonetheless, I often felt like his stilted delivery had come out of the William Shatner school of acting. He did improve as the movie went on; I think being able to play off Annette Bening's much warmer performance helped. Douglas just isn't well-suited to the broad verbal comedy of Sorkin's political writing.

Bening - the only person with as much screen time as Douglas - makes the film with her earnest delivery and sparkling eyes. She convincingly goes from a deer-in-the-headlights role to that of a Presidential near-equal, and she smoothly handles every line Sorkin throws her way, especially in the early sequences when she's blundering her way through her first few contacts with Shepherd.

(Martin Sheen is nearly as effective as Bening, except for his shorter screen time. Michael J. Fox as another Presidential aide presents his usual boyish eagerness, and seems to have been signed mainly to deliver one key speech, which he does quite well.)

The story itself is pure high concept: What if the President started dating during an election year? One can imagine that the working title of the film might have been "The President's Girlfriend". As such its arc is somewhat predictable, but it's still an entertaining exploration of a novel subject, amply supported by Sorkin's clever and non-stop dialogue, right up to the climactic speech. Overall it's an engaging movie (if one that seems to end a bit prematurely, as the viewer wants to see Rumson tromped into the ground on election day), and an interesting blueprint for the deeper and more textured The West Wing.

I also finished reading the final volume of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, which was quite good, if not as good as The Subtle Knife. A very rich and textured world that Pullman carves; I think it will be a few weeks before I have a good feel for what I really thought of this trilogy. I'm curious to see how much of it stays with me.

Now I must catch up on some magazine reading, and reading for next month's Keplers speculative fiction book discussion.