Only Somewhat Special

Michael Sheen either has a genuine affection for playing Tony Blair, or HBO made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Following his appearance in The Queen (and, I hear, an earlier movie in which he also appeared as Blair), Sheen once again took the role of the former Prime Minister in the HBO movie, The Special Relationship.

The film also stars Dennis Quaid and Hope Davis as Bill and Hillary Clinton, and covers the period from Blair's rise to his office, until President Clinton's departure from his. As the title would suggest (and as it is invoked several times in the dialogue), the movie deals with the relationship between the two countries, but also with the friendship and alliance specific to the two men.

It's really an excellent set of performances from all three of them, each hewing closely enough to impersonation that they honor what everyone in the audience will know, but then setting off just enough to portray real characters and not caricatures. The acting is really the strongest thing about the film.

A bit more muddy is the real purpose of telling the tale. Overall, it comes across as nothing more than a wink at history -- history recent enough that the audience is sure to know it. Clinton and Blair talk about their grand vision for center-left politics, and how they can work together to make that last for a generation. (nudge nudge) The Monica Lewinsky scandal makes for a big piece of the plot. (remember that, folks?!) The violence in Kosovo also figures prominently. (more people probably should remember that)

It's a bit dissatisfying as an overall narrative. The tale seems to be the growth of Blair, from a time when he was taking all his cues from Clinton, to his emergence as a major political player in his own right. But if it is Blair's story, it seems logical to me to continue on from there through his decline; instead, the movie ends as Clinton leaves office. It feels like an incomplete tale.

Still, the film does imagine enough private conversations between these three key figures to spur some thoughts. "Do you suppose it really went down like that?" With this bit of provocativeness, and the skilled acting, I'd rate the film a B-, despite it's sort of half-finished feeling. It's not really worth going out of your way to see, but if you have an HBO subscription already (for say, True Blood; yay!), then maybe you'll want to check it out.