Reagan is a film with a definitive vibe. It recalls some of the movies that emerged from the faith-based Angel Studios, such as Sound of Hope, Sound of Freedom, and Sight. These films have a certain point or issue to convey and rarely feel as if they were brought to life organically. A plot exists, but it seems outshined by the producers and writers who want you to “get” something. Think: eighth-grade history film.
Reagan doesn’t suffer as much as some of those movies, but the point is clear: Director Sean McNamara’s biopic on Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, is not going to go in-depth or really explore the inner workings of Reagan nor some of the things he was most criticized for. Instead, it opts to shine a flattering light on the man, capturing him as some kind of glorified soul, somebody who came from humble beginnings and managed to get a break in Hollywood then enter politics and emerge as the man who helped thwart communism and The Cold War in the 1980s. It’s the kind of film you’d like to see about yourself at your wake.
The film has several good things in its favor, among them Dennis Quaid, who nails his portrayal of “The Gipper” without making it feel strained or loaded with pure imitation. Reagan also has a solid cast, featuring Oscar-winner Jon Voight, Penelope Ann Miller, Mena Suvari, Kevin Dillon, and David Henrie. But even they can’t lift this all too breezy (and all long) endeavor.
A Different Kind of Narrator
The film begins with a Reagan voiceover about twists of fate and a divine plan. McNamara immediately paints Reagan as some kind of holy hotshot, destined to be good and do good. We’re then directly taken to the infamous assassination attempt on Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981. Cue: Quirky plot twist.
Pulling from Paul Kengor’s bestselling 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, writer Howard Klausner opts to tell the story through the eyes of a fictionalized KGB agent named Victor Novikov (Jon Voigt). It’s like we’re back watching Tom Hanks in Elvisall over again. That film’s creative flaw was that it presented a creepy, predatory figure (Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker) who is asking the audience to trust him to relay a story about somebody with phenomenal appeal.
The same thing happens here. The challenge with this device is that the script doesn’t give Jon Voight — always compelling — much more to do than act as a kind of creative page-flipper through Reagan’s life history. As he tells the story to an intentionally young and undefined Soviet character (Alex Sparrow’s Andrei Novikov), he calls Reagan “The Crusader,” somebody he has tracked for years. It’s a crazy kind of political Tuesdays with Morrie thing, and it’s not all that convincing.
Reagan Presented as a Savior
But let’s head back to the past and experience Reagan as a little boy, growing up in rural Illinois. Here we see his mother (the great Jennifer O'Neill, not given much to do) as being thoroughly supportive, assuring young Ronny that he has a special kind of fate/destiny. If you forget that plot point, fear not, the move reminds us of it over and over again.
What follows are immensely broad strokes through various moments in Reagan’s early years. The little boy becomes a young man lifeguarding — note: saving people’s lives. He even tallies how many people he’s rescued from the water. A lake, in fact. Not a raging ocean, but, nonetheless, we are again told that Reagan is a hero. And will become an even bigger one.
Reagan’s Hollywood years are handled with some pizzazz. There’s his marriage to Jane Wyman (RZR’s Mena Suvari), who ultimately laments that Reagan’s career has fizzled, having gone from major star to Bedtime for Gonzo sidekick to somebody pushing products on commercials. Reagan ultimately meets his longtime love Nancy Reagan (Penelope Ann Miller), and the filmmaker captures the connection, but here, too, there’s no depth being explored. Why does Nancy love Ronny? Why does Ronny love her? It’s glossed over.
Lengthy Running Would Have Made a Better Limited Series
Because the director is fine with the two-hour-plus running time, the film is intent on exploring every decade of Reagan’s life. The man died at the age of 93 in 2004, meaning there's a lot of ground to cover. So it's not long before you start to think you’d rather be watching this story as a limited series. Just for politics alone.
This era is where the film takes off. Reagan’s political years are tracked effectively, but again, not with much depth. The script beats the “I am going to thwart” communism drum repeatedly and we see Reagan rise from being governor of California in the 1960s and early 1970s to running a presidential campaign with Nancy Reagan at his side.
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Politicos like Margaret Thatcher (Lesley-Anne Down), Mikhail Gorbachev (Olek Krupa), Leonid Brezhnev (Robert Davi), Tip O'Neill (Dan Lauria), and Reagan’s trusted ally James Baker (Nick Searcy) are ushered in and quickly shoved aside. There’s not much time to let things simmer nor is there any authentic spark to create a sense of the high stakes involved. The fall of the Berlin Wall and Reagan’s growing political stronghold on Russia don’t really get fleshed out.
Dennis Quaid Is the Best Part of Reagan
The LGBTQ+ community? Reagan’s handling of the AIDS crisis? The fact that numerous critics cited Reagan as having the worst policies on mental illness? None of that gets addressed here. In so many ways, the film is operating in its own alternate reality. It’s too one-sided and had it broadened the scope of what it was attempting to showcase — Reagan, and every part of the man — the writer could have knocked it out of the park. That would have been the bold thing to do.
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What’s left is not bad. It’s just a letdown. Especially for astute Baby Boomers, Millennials, West Coasters, and anybody who’s kept current on historical issues. Still, Reagan was a showman, perhaps a more honest one than a familiar Republican who, surprisingly, continues to capture the spotlight today. There’s a great line in the film that’s hauntingly familiar in today’s contentious era when the Republican Party continues to garner criticism. In this case, a former Democrat in the early 1960s, explains why he left the party. “I didn’t leave them — they left me.”
Dive into the film, and you’ll surely appreciate the remarkable Dennis Quaid, who delivers yet another standout performance. The production value is high, and scenic shots of Reagan Ranch in California, where the film was partially shot, entice. However, if you’re looking for a deeper dive into an iconic figure, this isn’t the creative pool to swim in. Buoyed by its stand-out cast, Reagan defaults into a breezy tribute film, something with a lot of heart but rarely much depth. From Showbiz Direct, Reagan hits theaters on August 30.
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