Andrew Shepherd is a widowed President of the United States and about to start his reelection campaign he wasn’t looking for anyone but meeting lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade will change all of that when they fall in love.
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The beauty with this film is that everything just works for it, the fantastic cast, the script, the score and direction. It has such an amazing love story at its core and lays off the sex side to that and focuses on the real emotion and passion of deeply loving someone. Then you have that being the current President who has been a widower with a teenage daughter named Lucy.
The combination of this with the campaign something Lewis Rothschild really struggles with as he attempts to push everything forward for Shepherd. Alongside Robin McCall and A.J. MacINerney who is Vice President but also his best friend. Seriously it all just nits together in the nicest and best possible manner.
Sydney is working for an environmental lobby group, a paid political activist. This is something that will be used against her as the relationship quickly becomes public and her past is dug up and put across the papers. This gives Senator Bob Rumson the opposition for President plenty of ways to be able to attack Shepherd’s character. This is something that he ignores a lot and does not want to get into a character debate.
This would take a terrific scene with A.J. as the pair mix the deep friendship with the current situation. As Shepherd is told some truths about the previous election which occurred around a similar time to when his wife passed away. The opening up of a relationship meant that he would have to go into a character debate. Given Sidney’s job it was always going to get complicated with the information she had and could then accidentally pass on to well the President and his staff.
The love side is just done in the most amazing and lovely manner, the nervous nature of both people for different reasons. The fact that Andrew had not been with anyone since his wife’s passing and then with Sidney having to deal with the fact that he is the President. That certainly made for it to be so sweet the intense nature of it all.
Michael Douglas would make an incredible president wouldn’t he! That is something that I have thought for many years now with his charisma and calm nature it would be fantastic to listen to someone so confident in that powerful role. With that he has the best chemistry with Annette Bening, who is just utterly amazing in each and every role and that is the same in this film. A woman who did not want to rely on anyone and ends up realising that one man could really change everything.
In terms of supporting cast we are given the calming nature of Martin Sheen and as Vice President I do wonder if this had any impact on him becoming President in The West Wing? Surely it did as he is just so authoritative. Michael J. Fox who is always a joy to watch. Richard Dreyfuss given the villain role as the Senator something he carries off in the best possible fashion. Anna Deavere Smith is also impressive in her smaller supporting role as well.
The American President is an outstanding film in so many different ways, it has been one of my favourites for many years now. Something that I am not really sure how or why because I feel like I actually appreciate it even more now. Written by Aaron Sorkin who I feel is fantastic at capturing real human emotion within his screenplays. Then directed by Rob Reiner and he has a power over me as I always seem to adore his films! I mean come on When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men are two more of my favourite films. I even enjoy Rumor Has it . . .
Watching this film again makes me think that we deserve more lovely and amazing love stories that also have other issues going on within them. We get the crime bill and environmental importance, although some of this would be a little bit different in 2020. One last gushing comment is that this film is just quite frankly adorable in every possible way!
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