The Contender Review

When his Vice President dies in office Democrat President Jackson Evans - Jeff Bridges - wants to make his mark in history by appointing the first woman to the post. She`s Laine Hanson - Joan Allen - a pro-abortion atheist whose father was a state governor. Everyone had expected him to appoint party stalwart and governor of Virginia Jack Hathaway - William Petersen - particularly as Hathaway had recently become a hero in the press after a failed attempt to save a young woman from drowning. The Chairman of the committee in Congress that will conduct the confirmation hearings is Republican Shelly Runyan - Gary Oldman - and it seems he will stop at nothing to prevent Laine`s appointment. He`s a dangerous man and when he gets hold of sexually compromising photos of Laine when she was a freshman in college, he uses them........This political drama was written and directed by Rod Lurie and it`s rather old-fashioned in some ways. It certainly wears its political heart on its sleeve. It`s elevated by some really solid performances - Jeff Bridges is wonderful as the crafty Evans, whose obsession with food is a running joke in the film and Joan Allen gives terrific nuance to Hanson, who`s caught between the ugliness of the process, her ambition and her own integrity as a woman. Gary Oldman is almost unrecognisable as Runyan. And yet he imbues his character with a ruthlessly obsessive nature, he`s smug and pathetic at the same time. The film does have some rather contrived moments and there are some overtly grandstanding speeches towards the end but they`re not enough to detract majorly from this as a vastly entertaining experience.