An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 9 wins & 36 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaStephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) says about a slur on his opponent, "I don't care if it's true. I just want to hear him denying it." This is a reference to a statement attributed to Lyndon B. Johnson, who allegedly referred to an opponent as having carnal knowledge of farm animals. When an aide said he couldn't say that because it wasn't true, Johnson replied, "I know but I just want to hear him deny it."
- GoofsStephen asks for campaign petty cash to pay for the abortion, and then adds some of his personal funds and gives the money to Molly. It makes no sense for someone as savvy as Stephen to use campaign petty cash in this situation. He would have been making six figures and could certainly afford to use only his money. He wouldn't use campaign funds and risk leaving a trail.
- Quotes
Stephen Meyers: If you want to be president, you can start a war, you can lie, you can cheat, you can bankrupt the country, but you can't fuck the interns. They'll get you for that.
- Alternate versionsDespite the fact that much of the movie was filmed in Ohio, the credits of the theatrical release only say "Filmed on location in Michigan". This was corrected for the home video releases, which read "Filmed in the state of Michigan and the state of Ohio".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Breakfast: Episode dated 1 September 2011 (2011)
- SoundtracksWe'll Meet Again
Written by Ross Parker and Hugh Charles (as Charles Hughes)
Performed by Robert Mervak
Featured review
It's difficult to write a review about this film. It's so full of contradictions (artistic and otherwise) that it leaves you with a funny aftertaste. The film is about an idealistic young man working as a consultant for a campaigning politician and the conflicts and dichotomies he has to face if he wants to remain whole and with his integrity unbroken. Purely from the filmmaking standpoint, the movie will remind you of political thrillers of the 70s made by Alan J. Pakula or Sydney Pollack. It's beautifully shot, has a great script, a very ad-hoc music score, great performances by everyone involved. The way the story and main character evolved, however, lacked coherence and at one point I was under the impression I was watching a fragment of a different movie. Somehow it went from A to D, skipping B and C altogether. That alone changed my viewing experience from fully satisfying to one that, as I said at the beginning, left a funny aftertaste. The movie is more of a character study than a political thriller per se; as the former, it works mainly because of the performances by actors who are able to convey the inner conflicts they face. As the latter, don't expect to be taken aback with unpredictable twists or edge-of-your-seat suspense, because you won't find those here. I give it a 7/10.
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $12,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $40,962,534
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,470,143
- Oct 9, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $76,338,111
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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