BEFORE: Again, sorry for the thematic whiplash, but like "Lincoln" this is about a Republican President. I just fast-forwarded about 100 years and moved from drama to comedy. Linking from "Lincoln", I've got lots of choices - let's go with Joseph Gordon-Levitt through "Halloween H2O" to Michelle Williams (last seen in "Brokeback Mountain").
THE PLOT: The story of two girls who wander away from a White House tour and meet President Nixon.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Nixon" (Movie #1,125), "Elvis Meets Nixon" (Movie #1,126)
AFTER: This is a mostly inoffensive comedy where you really have to be a Watergate buff or a Nixon biographer to get all of the jokes. I'm thinking I missed quite a few, because once you get past G. Gordon Liddy, I don't know a lot of the players. The film trades upon people in the audience being familiar with Nixon's dog, and his propensity for taping conversations, as it puts forth a caricature version of Nixon, with "explanations" of the missing 18 1/2 minutes of audio, how Deep Throat got his name, and how Woodward and Bernstein cracked Watergate.
It's all a farce, of course, since everything supposedly ties in to two high-school girls who get lost on a field trip, become dog-walkers for Checkers, and then accidentally open the wrong door and see the shredders in action. Naturally there's a comic misunderstanding for every historical fact, but that just makes everything a bit too cute and a bit too connected at the same time.
There are some redeemable moments, since the girls are so clueless they think they can ask the President to stop the war, it's almost refreshingly naive for them to think that things could possibly be that simple. And Woodward and Bernstein are portayed as being even more buffoonish than the teenagers, but I'm guessing they don't give Pulitzers to bumbling idiots.
Also starring Kirsten Dunst (last seen in "Melancholia"), Dan Hedaya (last seen in "Tightrope"), Will Ferrell (last seen in "The Campaign"), Bruce McCulloch, Dave Foley (last heard in "A Bug's Life"), Jim Breuer (last heard in "Zookeeper"), Teri Garr (last seen in "Oh, God!"), Harry Shearer (last seen in "Speechless"), Saul Rubinek, Ana Gasteyer, Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "Safe House"), with cameos from Ted McGinley, French Stewart.
RATING: 4 out of 10 walnuts
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