"Reagan" Review

Yesterday, I went to the 2:30 screening of Reagan at the Red Rock 10 Theaters in Gallup. I found myself the only person in the auditorium although one other person paid for a seat. Then again, the whole theater complex was devoid of cars in the parking lot.

Before the movie started, I was bombarded with trailers of upcoming movies, primarily the Christmas holiday movies. I found this funny since we're not out of summer yet.

This has to be the first movie I've ever seen for the first time where I knew pretty much exactly what line of dialog was going to be spoken next. I guess I am too well-versed on the subject.

The movie covered Reagan's life from Dixon, Illinois to his passing. The end credits featured photos and videos of Ronald Reagan along with his funeral.

On Reagan, I thought that Dennis Quaid did a good job portraying Ronald Reagan. To his credit, he did not try to do an imitation of him (Rich Little-style). Reagan would be a hard historical figure to portray anyway. I feel that Lane Smith as Richard Nixon in The Final Days (1989) and William Devane as JFK in The Missiles of October (1974) did much better in portraying those presidents.

Above, Nancy and Ronald Reagan at the Town & Country Hotel
 in San Diego in September 1979. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The main problem I had with Quaid's Ronald Reagan was not from his acting, but that he looked strange on horseback. Reagan was 6'1" and Quaid is an inch shorter. Yet when he was on horseback, he looked as if he were 5'10" or thereabouts. Maybe it was his body shape? I think the camera angles could have been better during the horseback riding scenes. By the way, the scenes involving Reagan's ranch, Rancho del Cielo, were actually filmed at the ranch. That was a nice touch.

The supporting players all did good work with Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan and Jon Voight as former Soviet KGB operative Viktor Petrovich (a fictional character) as standouts. It was nice to see Jennifer O'Neill as the older Nelle Reagan. I hadn't seen her in years. 

The movie has not impressed the critics (22% likeability), but audiences has given it a 85% likeability rating at Rotten Tomatoes (at this writing). Go figure.

There was nothing in the movie what would tarnish Reagan's legacy. In fact, the movie only fortified it.

My grade: B+.