The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Directed by: Niels Mueller
(ThinkFilm)
Sean Penn has said he doesn’t think of movies as entertainment. He believes they should aspire to more. This movie, along with his recent performances in small, grim pictures (21 Grams comes to mind) cleaves with that philosophy. Set in the early ’70s, Penn plays Samuel Bicke, a man desperate to right his capsizing life. Separated from his wife (Naomi Watts) and children, he takes a job as a furniture salesman hoping to show he has the stuff to support them and win her back. He dreams of starting a new business with a buddy (Don Cheadle), who tries to give him some perspective on the “real world” but Sam is too idealistic or deluded to find his way, crippled by low self-esteem and a superior moral attitude that ignores his own hypocrisy. Meanwhile, Richard Nixon appears on every television set, goading him. Shot in browns and greys, the film combines a deft use of archival newsreel with hand-held camerawork to evoke the grainy, intimate realism of 1970s working-class movies such as Straight Time and The Last Detail. It channels Watergate-era themes of disillusionment and distrust in a society where everything is for sale, themes that haven’t faded much with the changing times.
-Carsten Knox
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.