"Running Mates" is a film with some good points to make....and some bad. On balance it's worth seeing...but could have been done better.
When the story begins, Aggie (Diane Keaton) is with her mentally ill brother (Ed Begley Jr. ) at a restaurant. Hugh (Ed Harris) is also there and he recognizes her from back in high school and he asks her out for lunch when he returns to Washington. Hugh is a senator who has never married and he is definitely interested in her...so much that he asks her to marry him almost immediately...a weak part of the film since it was so fast. But she is very independent-minded and hates the idea of potentially becoming the First Lady. Despite this, her dislike of Hugh's handlers and her insisting she needs to be true to herself, she agrees to marry him. Soon the awfulness of being under the media's microscope becomes too much. What's next?
The idea of this film is excellent and the pair are both excellent actors. But the script occasionally let me down. How can such an independent and thoughtful woman be expected to sublimate who she really is? And, more importantly, how can a man who says he loves her insist that she do this?! It really didn't work for me until the very end...when he FINALLY stepped up and did the right things. In other words, the relationship seemed very one-sided and selfish on his part. Now, if you don't want the film to be a romance, then this is fine, as it shows politics as it often really is. But to try to bring romance into it...that's when the film disappointed. Watchable and even enjoyable at times but flawed.
