Cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Don Cheadle, Jack Thompson, Brad Henke
Director: Niels Mueller
Producers: Alfonso Cuaron, Jorge Vergara
Screenplay: Niels Mueller, Kevin Kennedy
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki
Music: Steven Stern
U.S. Distributor: THINKfilm
The Assassination of Richard Nixon offers a more compelling title than film. Director Niels Mueller, making his directorial debut, takes us back to 1974, when Watergate was preparing to take down the President. Samuel Bicke (Sean Penn) is a furniture salesman who can do no right. His gruff boss (Jack Thompson) is losing patience with his inability to close sales; his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), is desperate to get a divorce; and his plans for a new business with his best friend (Don Cheadle) are in jeopardy because the bank is reluctant to provide a loan. As Sam's life disintegrates, he gropes for someone to blame, and he eventually decides that the source of his woes is the President of the United States. When he sees a news report about a helicopter landing on the White House lawn, Sam comes up with an audacious plan: hijack a plane and fly it into the White House, killing Nixon and making himself a martyr. But, as with everything else, Sam screws it up.
The Taxi Driver influence is unmistakable. The era is the same. The intense dissociation from society of the main character is the same. The need to lash out through violence is the same. Where The Assassination of Richard Nixon fails is in its inability to make Sam a compelling character. Here's an irritating loser and perennial whiner who is intent upon abdicating personal responsibility for his failures, preferring instead to blame others and/or society. It's a trial to spend 90 minutes with this man, and Mueller's somnambulant pace doesn't help.
If making a character insufferable constitutes giving a good performance, then Sean Penn provides a great one. A lot of his mannerisms seem canned, but there are times, such as when Sam experiences a volcanic meltdown at the furniture store, when Penn is galvanized. Unfortunately, most of the time, he's an accomplice to the film's overall torpor. Even great actors have "off" films, and this is Penn's first since I Am Sam (maybe he should quit playing characters named "Sam").
The Assassination of Richard Nixon takes its central premise from an historical incident, but a great deal of the material emerges from the pens of screenwriters who want to make a seemingly obvious point about political corruption and indifference. Frequent clips of Nixon on TV add to the heavy-handed approach. They also attempt to enhance the verisimilitude of the era. Despite these and other cues, however, The Assassination of Richard Nixon doesn't really feel like it's taking place during the 1970s.
This is another movie where politics trump the narrative. Penn and the historical context will generate some interest, but the film's ultimate reception is likely to be as chilly as the month in which it receives its theatrical release (December 2004).
© 2004 James Berardinelli