Excellent, solid historical drama

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2002)

There does not seem to be any reason to see this movie more than twice, but it is worth seeing once.
Clocking in at 2 1/2 hours, its not that its boring, its just that it gets a little redundant. Okay, Costner is frightened, I got that already, the 26th time. I don't need him getting on line for confession or telling his wife to get ready for the unthinkable to realize that this was an extremely serious time in history. Show me someone else having anxiety, he can't have cornered the market on that particular emotion.
Possibly more time would have been better spent showing Joe Sixpack and his family and their reaction. 99% of the movie takes place inside the White House, it might have been nice to open it up a little.

But its all still really fascinating. The politics and the politicians, the assuming you know what the enemy is doing, the power struggles, the second-guessing..its all right here.
All the casting is fantastic. Bruce Greenwood is not doing a party imitation and even gets in some subtle references to Kennedy's chronic bad back, without making a big deal of it. Costner's accent was overdone at times but he is, for better or worse, the soul of the movie and you see a lot of it through his eyes. All the supporting actors are great, but I enjoyed Christopher Lawford's couple of scenes the most. I had assumed when I saw his name in the credits he would be playing his father Peter, who he resembles, but he does not.
He's also in on the only laugh supplied by the movie - a pushy White House receptionist gets off a funny line, which is much appreciated.

8/10. Solid movie making, fascinating topic..and unfortunately, more timely to current events than any of us would like.