From the writer Peter Morgan, who brought us The Queen and Frost/Nixon, comes The Special Relationship- a film that examines the close bond that grew between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair during their time in power. Using the established British cast from The Queen, and adding in some American players, the film covers Blair’s rise to power, Clinton’s sex scandal and the NATO bombing of Kosovo.
Told predominately from Blair’s (Michael Sheen) perspective, The Special Relationship charts his meteoric rise to power contrasting it to the decline and wane of Clinton’s (Dennis Quaid) popularity. Starting in 1993, the film shows how Blair learnt the art of spin from Clinton and then surpassed him on the international arena; the film finishes with Bush's election in 2001. Following the politicians and their wives, Cherie (Helen McCrory) and Hillary (Hope Davis), the film spends time behind the doors of 10 Downing Street and the White House and considers the genuine friendship that developed between the couples.
The script takes a bittersweet look at the two men that thought they were starting a universal centre-left political revolution, but instead got swept up in their own legacy making. Sheen and McCrory are old hands at playing the Blairs, with both actors creating their own characters, not simply impersonating their namesakes. Hope Davis is an excellent addition to the cast, taking on Hillary’s mannerisms with enough subtlety to make her performance believable. Dennis Quaid’s Clinton on the other hand feels mimicry; the voice he adopts is just plain distracting.
While for the most part the acting is excellent and the script, thoug not groundbreaking is funny and clever, the film is let down by its director, Richard Loncraine. He places way too much emphasis on guffawing and lingering looks between Blair and Clinton, taking the film dangeriously close to bromance territory (admittedly high-brow bromance). Watching The Special Relationship it’s hard not to think that the material is better suited to a TV show format. In fact in the USA it screened as a made-for-TV movie, scoring Sheen, Quaid, Davis and Morgan Emmy nominations.
3/5
First Published in The Brag 09/08/10
