Head off panda shirt

Want.

[9gag]

Well, if you say so…

Hahaha.

[The Daily What]

Quick Rewind: The Special Relationship

This past weekend, HBO aired a new film, The Special Relationship. This is the new film with a screenplay from Peter Morgan, which is the third in Morgan’s Tony Blair trilogy. First there was The Deal (Still haven’t seen this, but definitely plan to), then there was the Oscar winning film The Queen (a movie that I adore), and now we have The Special Relationship. You might also be familiar with Morgan as he penned the script for Frost/Nixon, another terrific effort based on real events.

The film depicts the time period from 1994-2000, and depicts the relationship that Tony Blair and Bill Clinton had. Clinton was a supporter of Blair before he even became Prime Minister of the UK. Blair eventually did become Prime Minister and he and Clinton became close friends as their countries worked together as allies. The film also encompasses the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which took place early in Blair’s reign, as well as the situation in Kosovo. The funny thing is the Lewinsky scandal hurts Clinton’s reputation while Blair’s reputation grows exponentially (The newspapers in the film claimed people would want Blair as President of the United States in a heartbeat). The film pretty much ends at the 2000 election when the Clinton era in office comes to an end.

Michael Sheen and Helen McCrory are both back in their roles as Tony and Cherie Blair and both are fantastic together once again (After what we saw in The Queen, is that really a surprise?). Dennis Quaid is surprisingly good as Bill Clinton. Playing Clinton can’t be too easy to do without being over the top or coming across as slightly comical. But Quaid does a good job here as does Hope Davis playing Hilary. Like the other films based on Morgan’s scripts, it is just really well done. You constantly have to remind yourself, as in The Queen and Frost/Nixon, that this actually isn’t a documentary. Yes, this is high quality film making.

Overall, The Special Relationship doesn’t live up to The Queen or Frost/Nixon, but that’s a pretty high bar to reach far. This is still a very good and very interesting film. Morgan once again takes a story about politics, which can be quite boring, and makes a story more about the people. And it results in a quality film.