Reagan Parent Guide

Andrei Novikov (Alex Sparrow) is a patriotic Russian who can’t understand how “we lost our country”. In search of answers, he turns to retired KGB agent, Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight) who enlightens him. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics fell because of one man: Ronald Reagan.

Throughout the next two-and-a-quarter-hours of screentime, Petrovich takes Novikov through Reagan’s (Dennis Quaid) life and shows how the young boy’s (Tommy Ragen) religious conversion set him in opposition to communist atheism, how his time as a lifeguard (David Henrie) taught him to read unseen currents, and how his work with the Screen Actors Guild made him aware of the Soviet Union’s nefarious goal of destroying democracy in the United States of America. Only Reagan, Petrovich asserts, had the faith, insight, and determination to finally bring down Communism and end the Cold War.

If this sounds simplistic, that’s because it is. Historical biopics are always difficult and trying to stuff four decades of world history and 90+ years of a man’s life into 135 minutes becomes impossible when that life includes a Hollywood career, the governership of California, and two terms as President of the United States. Succeeding at this task requires a good script and a skilled director. Reagan has neither.

So what’s wrong with this movie? Let me begin with the script and its worst failing, the frame narrative. In a film that’s pressed for time, I can’t think of any reason why screenwriter Howard Klausner would waste a second on an ahistorical pair of Russians dissecting Reagan’s career. The movie already begins with the failed assassination attempt in 1981: the earlier parts of his life could have been told in flashbacks before moving forward after his recovery. The frame is clumsy, unnecessary and endlessly annoying.

The rest of the script suffers from the problem of trying to do too much: it races through Reagan’s acting career, cherry picks a few incidents from his eight years as California’s governor, and then hurtles through his electoral campaigns and presidential terms. He’s motivated by two things: saying “No” to the Soviets and cutting taxes for Americans and these issues consume most of the screentime. Firing striking air traffic controllers gets a few seconds; the AIDS epidemic, even fewer; financial deregulation, none at all.

In fact, this film seems almost entirely disinterested in the political nuts and bolts of legislation – not Reagan’s signing of bills implementing gun control and legalizing abortion and no-fault divorce in California, nor his 1986 signing of a bill giving amnesty to three million illegal aliens. The nitty-gritty of governing is apparently irrelevant to the Gipper’s divinely directed destiny – prophesied one warm California evening by a visiting preacher. Nancy apparently believes but cynical critics like me will note that her astrologer’s foretellings are not included in the film. That’s not a surprise, given that Reagan is what I would call a Christian-adjacent film: it’s not explicitly a religious movie, but religious perspectives influence the storytelling. This will please devout Christian moviegoers, but it will certainly dampen this film’s appeal for mass audiences.

I’m not terribly happy with the cast either, but I hate to pick on actors who are served a bad script. Dennis Quaid looks like he has a toothache as he endeavors to simulate Reagan’s friendly grin. Aside from Novikov, the Russians all look terrible. Yes, the Politburo was a gerontocracy, but Gorbachev was 20 years younger than Reagan. You’d never know it from the movie: Olek Krupa has been given makeup and lighting so grey that his Gorbachev looks like a barely reanimated zombie trying to come back from the dead. Seriously, a Hollywood movie can do better than this.

Amidst the rapid pace of its plot and the swirl of its irksome issues, Reagan fails to either inform or inspire. Perhaps director Sean McNamara should have aimed for a film with a tighter focus on a narrower slice of Reagan’s life. After all, Thirteen Days, the story of the Cuban missile crisis, gives a fascinating look into the presidency of JFK. Lincoln focuses on the Great Emancipator’s determination to pass the Thirteenth Amendment. Civil rights is the central topic of LBJ. Each of these films provides an intriguing look at a consequential president. McNamara needs to act on the old adage, “Less is more”.