Instructional, illustrative TV-style docudrama on the Cuban Missile Crisis, legitimately limited to the point of view from the Oval Office. (What in God's name were those Russkies thinking?) The doomsday scenario pushes us right up to the dizzying brink, albeit with a lifeline securely attached to our waist: we know in advance we'll get pulled back. Even so, the factuality of the events turns out not to hold down suspense as much as it holds down dramatic excess and rampant imagination, a fair enough trade-off. At the same time, though, it ties these events to the trivializing province of nightclub "impressionism" and celebrity look-alike contests. (There seems to be no way around this, short of solely dramatizing historical events prior to the advent of television.) Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp, starting with the inverted bird's nest and flopping forelock atop their individual heads, are reasonable facsimiles of JFK and RFK -- more than can be said for, among others, Dylan Baker's Robert McNamara, Michael Fairman's Adlai Stevenson, or, mercifully brief, Stephanie Romanov's Jackie. Still, to notice again and again the reasonableness of the facsimile is to disengage from the characters and their situation: the bubble of illusion springs a slow and squealing leak. Nor does it help to enlist as Presidential advisor Kenneth (Kenny) (Ken) O'Donnell an actor -- Kevin Costner -- whose wattage outpowers that of the rest of the cast put together. The imbalance in the casting unbalances the drama. Or more precisely it unbalances the scriptwriting, such that O'Donnell (who's this, again?) will forever appear to be horning in on others' moments of glory, offering pep talks, strategy tips, words of wisdom, moral support, etc., to the tottering Adlai Stevenson, for example, before his cross-examination of the Soviet mouthpiece in the U.N. General Assembly ("Stick it to 'em, Adlai"), or to Bobby before his eleventh-hour tête-à-tête with the Soviet envoy in Washington. And not just before it, but also during it: whistling a penetrating "Danny Boy" in the next room to stir the Irish blood. Directed by Roger Donaldson. (2000) — Duncan Shepherd
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