Monday, December 29, 2014


Movie Review

Dick (1999)

August 4, 1999


Published: August 4, 1999

Not to get too solemn about it, but ''Dick,'' an uproariously dizzy satire that reduces the Watergate scandal into a goofy Nancy Drew caper for starry-eyed teeny-boppers, would probably not have been made had Monica Lewinsky never slunk into the Oval Office. Who was it who observed that history repeats itself as farce?

In this frothy ''Saturday Night Live''-style fantasy of Richard Nixon's downfall, the agents of his destruction are revealed to have been two giggly 15-year-old girls -- baby Monicas, if you will -- who have a knack for being in the right place at the wrong time.

Thanks to ''Dick,'' at last we know the identity of Deep Throat, the confidential source who gave Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein the inside scoop on Nixon's knowledge of the Watergate break-in and involvement in the cover-up. Far from being a high-level Government official, the whistler-blowers who met the intrepid Washington Post reporters in an underground parking garage turn out to have been those fearless Monicas, Betsy Jobs (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene Lorenzo (Michelle Williams). As Maurice Chevalier so eloquently put it, ''Thank heaven for little girls.''

When we first encounter these squealing bundles of mischief in Arlene's bedroom in the Watergate apartment complex, they are breathlessly composing a love letter to Arlene's dream date, the pop star Bobby Sherman, on a fateful June night in 1972. Rushing to meet the mail deadline for a ''Win a Date With Bobby Sherman'' contest in Tiger Beat magazine, the pair literally stumble into G. Gordon Liddy (Harry Shearer) lurking in a stairwell. On a subsequent school field trip to the White House, Arlene recognizes Mr. Liddy in a corridor. He happens to have a piece of paper stuck to his shoe, which she retrieves as a souvenir. It turns out to be a secret list of donors for the Committee to Re-elect the President.

During the same visit a chance encounter with the President's dog, Checkers, results in an introduction to Nixon, who unctuously appoints the girls his official dog walkers. Screwing up her courage, Arlene presumes to lecture the President, announcing that war isn't healthy for children and other living things. He seems to understand.

Suddenly it's goodbye Bobby Sherman, hello Richard Nixon. Wildly smitten with the President, Arlene begins keeping a diary in which she confides her passion and plasters her bedroom walls with his picture. One day while wandering around the White House, she and Betsy stumble into an office where paper is being frantically shredded and stacks of money counted. The President, on being informed of their discovery, shrewdly bestows a lofty new title on the girls: secret youth adviser.

The movie goes so far as to suggest that the tasty Hello Dolly cookies Arlene brings to the White House may actually have altered the course of world history. Made with walnuts plucked from a jar in which her brother secretes an unidentified green herb, they have an instant effect on anyone who takes even a single bite. One afternoon, during a summit meeting with the Russian leader, Leonid I. Brezhnev, Nixon passes around a fresh batch of Hello Dollys, and in seconds everyone, even Brezhnev, is laughing and singing the show tune that gives these munchies their name. The very next day, an accord is announced.

But all too soon, Arlene's dream of love is shattered. One day she leaves a declaration of passion on the President's tape recorder. Rewinding the machine and playing it back, she hears the President spewing some nasty epithets and worse, being cruel to Checkers. So much for true love. As the Watergate scandal breaks on television, Arlene and Betsy begin putting the pieces together and making phone calls.

''Dick,'' directed by Andrew Fleming and featuring alumni from ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''Kids in the Hall,'' has the jovial tone of an extended television sketch. As it rollicks along on a soundtrack of early-1970's hits, it comes up with just enough funny business to keep the movie from losing its fizz. Except for Dan Hedaya's hilariously twitchy Nixon, the physical and vocal resemblances between the actors and famous people they play are, at most, superficial. Mr. Woodward (Will Ferrell) and Mr. Bernstein (Bruce McCulloch), in particular, are portrayed as a ludicrous journalistic dog-and-pony show; one is puffed up and stuffy, the other a pudgy, competitive little creep who tries to steal his colleague's information.

Pity poor Richard Nixon, Although he's not here to be kicked around by the press anymore, he is still an irresistible lightning rod for gleeful ridicule. In exaggerating Nixon's mannerisms, Mr. Hedaya has created the year's funniest film caricature. With his hunched shoulders, darting paranoid gaze and crocodile grimace, Mr. Hedaya's Nixon is the quivering, skulking embodiment of a single word: guilty.

The movie is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has off-color humor and some strong language.


Directed by Andrew Fleming; written by Mr. Fleming and Sheryl Longin; director of photography, Alexander Gruszynski; edited by Mia Goldman; music by John Debney; production designer, Barbara Dunphy; produced by Gale Anne Hurd; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 90 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Kirsten Dunst (Betsy Jobs), Michelle Williams (Arlene Lorenzo), Jim Breuer (John Dean), Will Ferrell (Bob Woodward), Dave Foley (Bob Haldeman), Teri Garr (Helen Lorenzo), Ana Gasteyer (Rose Mary Woods), Devon Gummersall (Larry Jobs), Dan Hedaya (Dick), Bruce McCulloch (Carl Bernstein), Ted McGinley (Roderick), Ryan Reynolds (Chip), Saul Rubinek (Henry Kissinger), Harry Shearer (G. Gordon Liddy), Len Doncheff (Leonid I. Brezhnev), G. D. Spradlin (Ben Bradlee) and Checkers (Brunswick).

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