PRIMARY COLORS

SYNOPSIS:
Henry Burton (Adrian Lester) is an idealistic young black man, the grandson of a Civil Rights leader, who is looking for something or someone to believe in. He joins the Presidential campaign of Jack Stanton (John Travolta), the progressive governor of a small southern state where Henry's ancestors were slaves, and meets his new political family: Richard (Billy Bob Thornton) the brilliant, improbable political strategist who proudly describes himself as a "Redneck," Libby (Kathy Bates) the fanatically loyal, overtly gay, campaign trouble shooter who occasionally carries a gun, Daisy (Maura Tierney) the campaign media advisor, young and smart and looking for love. Jack and Susan Stanton (Emma Thompson) are impossible to resist, burning with the ambition to be a part of history. During the long, roller coaster campaign riddled with sexual scandal (two of them with the presidential candidate), Henry becomes progressively more involved with his new world, alternating between love and disillusion and discovering that both are a part of growing up American.

"Primary Colours satisfies the cynic as deeply it satisfies the pragmatist and the idealist; the story of an American Presidential campaign is the story of an American nightmare within the American dream. (But before we get carried away with any smug American-bashing, we should remember the universality of human weakness – especially in the political arena.) The film’s origin, the famous book by Anonymous, since revealed as Joe Klein, has in its power to suggest that this is how the Clinton campaign was REALLY like. This is either a dangerous lie and a total character assassination of both Bill and Hilary Clinton (among others), or it is partially true and a partial character assassination; on the other hand, can cinematic sexual scandals further damage Clinton at this point in time? The most important aspect of Primary Colours is really nothing to do with Clinton; does it work as a film, does it work as insightful and entertaining? Yes. Yes. And yes again to Elaine May’s fabulous script, with crackling dialogue, gripping structure, complex characters plus a satisfying emotional wallop. Nichols and May always were a great team, and here they deliver a film with political and social implications but they do not lose sight of the main game. (They do lose sight of the clock a bit, though, and let it run on about 20 minutes more than we need.) The casting is terrific, and I have to admit that I was wrong about Emma Thompson; before seeing the film, I felt she was miscast. But she convinced me by nailing her character completely; matter of fact, I liked hers more than I liked Travolta’s performance. I also enjoyed Australian actress, Gia Carides’ cameo as the hairdresser claiming to have slept with the candidate, and the larger supporting role by Larry Hagman, against type, as the ageing Senator with some skeletons in the closet. Billy Bob Thornton and the brilliant Kathy Bates, both create their characters with depth and contradictory humanity; the film is told from Henry Burton’s point of view, and Adrian Lester is suitably engaging as the political virgin raped by the campaign. Ry Cooder’s music floats nicely in and out of our consciousness and the production design is detailed without being prissy."
Andrew L. Urban