WAG THE DOG
WenQing
Directed by : Barry Levinson
Produced by : Warner Bros.
Main Cast : Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche
Length : 100 min approx
Rating : **** 1/2
IT'S ALL TRUE, I SAW IT ON TV
I'd heard that WAG THE DOG was a low-budget side project by Barry Levinson, second in priority to this season's sci-fi snore SPHERE. But even so, WAG THE DOG demonstrates intelligence, sharp wit, a compelling plot, and manifests an insidious comment on the American Dream.
Barry Levinson films aren't always the best things to look out for; DISCLOSURE was one spiral into Demi Moore's cleavage (depending on whether that does it for you) and TOYS just dragged on and on, but sometimes he pulls off artful, thoughtful and excellent pieces like RAIN MAN. WAG THE DOG reminds me of RAIN MAN, especially in Levinson's strong and unerring sense of vision -- he is always sure of his message, using skilful film-making to get it across.
In essence, WAG THE DOG is about how the American President is accused of an illicit sexual relationship by a young firefly girl only 11 days before the elections. Immediately, the spin doctors (De Niro and Heche as a dynamite team who play off each other as though they have been cast together for eons) are called in to distract the American public with some cover-up story. De Niro's character hatches the idea of pretending that America is declaring war on Albania (the reason : Albania has never done anything to us, but never anything for us, and the average American hasn't the faintest clue where Albania is or what it's about anyway). Then they enlist the help of Hollywood producer Dustin Hoffman (in an Oscar-nominated performance... one of the best I've seen him in for years) to market the whole sham to the American public, complete with a theme song (like "Voices That Care" from 1991, it's "Guard the American Dream"... and a whole lot of other songs too, with lyrics that are a scream), fake images of an Albanian girl (Kirsten Dunst) running through war-torn streets with a bag of chips (that's later computer enhanced into a white kitten... the President requested a white kitten, not a coloured one), a war hero (Woody Harrelson who's so right for the tiny but instrumental role), and a dastardly plot about Albania trying to destroy the American dream.
The whole concept of the film is wildly exciting, and the way Levinson executes it shows his mastery of his craft. Throughout, the really skilful scripting makes the dialogue funny, smart and quick. The exchanges are riveting and compelling (check out De Niro turning the tables on William H. Macy's CIA agent sent to kill him and Heche simply through rhetoric... how come he didn't get a nomination?). De Niro's tag-line for his plan to distract the American public is: "I'm working on it" (he sounds like an old-hand), and Hoffman is hilarious with his : "this is nothing!" (a producer's hubris) to every single hitch the project runs into.
It's Hoffman's energy that carries a large part of the film, and his exuberance about the project revolves around his desire to uplift his art as a film producer. He also carries a chip on his shoulder about how producers are never credited at the Oscars, yet it is the producer who gets all the work done. It's extremely delightful to see the joy he takes in his work, seeing the sham as his one great masterpiece that he cannot tell the world about. As a comedy, WAG THE DOG is one of the best and most intelligent movies I have seen in a long time. But it is so much more than that. For me, WAG THE DOG conveyed two powerful messages on the American lifestyle and its values and beliefs.
In WAG THE DOG, the whole American dream is on trial from beginning till end. The skill of Levinson is in masking his criticism so well that we unwittingly become complicit with the damning failures of the American dream. The film on the surface is about the process of mediafying American life, turning fiction and lies into truth by just portraying it on television. And beneath this altogether hilarious execution of the subject matter, is the startling examination of the twisted and corrupted American dream. For the incumbent President (whom Levinson deliberately never lets us see, just for that faceless effect), De Niro and Heche go to all lengths to create a lie to sell to the people, if only to keep the President in the Oval Office. Not once is there a question of morality behind their intentions, nor is there doubt as to what they need to do for the President regardless whether he truly had an affair with the young girl (by the way, WAG THE DOG was released in America before the Monica Lewinsky affair, but the added weight of events in America now really lifts this film to a level of amazing authenticity). What's worse is that because of the attractive and infinitely appealing energy and intelligence of the characters constructing the lie, we're always on their side. The American public is merely a mass of gullible citizens vulnerable for exploitation, to which we're constantly game to support the deception of. Hoffman's inventiveness is so engaging that we never really want the lie to end, and delight in its twists and turns. Whenever he says : "this is nothing!", it's a signal that there's another innovative turn in the elaborate sham, and we anticipate it gladly.
And that's the powerful story-telling that Levinson pulls off with WAG THE DOG. It isn't an all-out amoral comedy that pulls out the stops, and laughs at everyone's expense (HOME ALONE 3? MR MAGOO? you get the idea). It's really a stinging critique of America and its grandiose lies- the worst ones relying on the amorphous yet emotive American Dream to gull the people. The signs of this disillusionment are always clear, they are always there, but it's striking how Levinson manages to make us stare at these signs straight in the face and still go on rooting for the liars and the deceivers who tear the dream to shreds (check out Kirsten Dunst being told she can't put her "Albanian starring role" on her resume or else someone will come to her house and kill her, it's so funny and yet...). He makes us want to pretend that the flaws and the failures aren't there. He wants us to turn the lies into truths, and he gets us exactly there with minimal fuss and lots of laughs (which really get us feeling guilty the moment the high-flying sensation of the lie ends, and the show concludes). In fact, the jarring conclusion to the tale (which I won't reveal) is so effective that we're left ridden with that nagging doubt about the buoyancy of the film. And that, I think, is the best part of what Levinson has done. He's got a message and a film to sell to us, and by the end of WAG THE DOG, we're sold.
The Flying Inkpot's Rating System
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Tonight With Gurmit.
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
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