Date: Fri 23-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Playing-Levinson-Hoffman

Full Text:

(rev "Wag The Dog" for Now Playing)

Now Playing--

Levinson's Latest Has Fun Wagging Its Finger At Media

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Politics and its practitioners have long been the target of clever satirists

and found themselves in the crosshairs of such varied talents as Jonathan

Swift, Thomas Nast, Mark Twain, and a whole host of others one could name. Yet

it seems hardly a richer time existed for a critical gaze at the political

machine than right now. America's President is just as likely to be seen

schmoozing with Hollywood bigwigs (or exiting a courtroom after a deposition)

as he is to be detected in a meeting with his staff; a giddy Nelson Mandela

has his picture taken with the Spice Girls; and the White House gets ornery

when the President unwittingly turns up in a supporting role in the summer

film Contact (ah, those clever computers).

It is this increased blurring of the line between politics and show business

that fuels the film Wag The Dog , currently playing in Danbury. A clever, and

at times wickedly funny, look at a president's bid for re-election and what

lengths his staff will go to get him back in office, Wag The Dog wisely avoids

taking potshots at Bill Clinton, or anyone else specific, but, in the words of

the writer Joseph Addison, passes "over a single foe to charge whole armies."

Many an institution is implicated in the course of these proceedings, which

finds Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro), called "Mr Fix-It" by White House aide

Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), seeking the means to throw bloodthirsty media

types off the scent of a breaking news flash about the president's infidelity

with a Girl Scout-age visitor. It is 11 days to the election and a story like

this -- whether true or false -- could shatter all hopes of re-election.

Brean's solution? Concoct a war that will swing the attentions of the public,

and feisty news hounds, away from a damaging situation for Mr President.

Truth is of major concern in this movie. Or, perhaps more to the point, the

postmodern issue of how does one ascertain truth? Brean is fond of saying if

people see it on television, they believe it must be true. His mantra could

easily be, "the truth is not out there, it's what's on TV." Truth for these

political spinmeisters is not about what really happened, but what they can

get people to believe.

To pull of his coup de grace, Brean brings ace Hollywood producer Stanley

Motss (Dustin Hoffman), into the loop to help him finance this war "pageant."

Motss, tired of producing big budget, box office blockbusters for which he

receives no critical acclaim or credit, pursues this new challenge with relish

and adds moxie to the truth-twisting team of Brean and Ames.

Wag The Dog , directed with flash and sly wit by Barry Levinson, is fierce in

its skewering of modern day, media-soaked society. To give away the many turns

of the often hilarious plot would be a crime, but suffice to say the film

sticks its tongue out at nearly every staple of contemporary culture, from

promotional tie-ins to charity benefit pop songs and sound-byte journalism.

Levinson is wise to balance the more fanciful, over-the-top turns of the plot

with realism -- almost cinema cerite style -- that keeps the movie and its

focus on constant track and steadily-flowing momentum.

On the performance side, Hoffman is delightfully gleeful as the energetic

Motss, and if not for the caliber of his co-stars, would have handily walked

away with this film. To the benefit of Wag The Dog , he doesn't: Heche, who

has garnered much tabloid time due to her relationship with Ellen Degeneres,

is smooth as the slightly wound-up aide who gets caught up in the adrenaline

rush of behind-the-scenes trickery; and De Niro is surprisingly, and

appropriately, subdued, playing straightman to Hoffman and some of the other

characters that inhabit Levinson's world.

Wag The Dog is rated R for profanity and coarse language.