He deludes himself into thinking that what he's actually doing is tracking down the truth about his wife's secret life. But it turns out that the congresswoman is facing a tough re-election campaign, and any impropriety can be used against her. There's also a subplot about Dutch's cowboylike investigation of a rogue cop. But Scott Thomas, who hides under the shade of her Dietrich eyelids, is every bit as recessive an actor as Ford is, and the two seem lost in respective snits. Pollack keeps the film morose and free of humor.
Nothing lightens the mood.
She herself says she hasn't got a political record to run on, and she apparently has no politics. And the importance of Dutch's dirty job as a cop isn't shown to us either. When you're constructing an argument between love and duty, it's best to make that duty clear and strong, instead of vague and distracting.