MITT

The opening scene of Greg Whiteley’s new documentary has Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney in an hotel suite surrounded by his family pondering out loud on how he should write a concession speech. The year is 2012 and Romney has just lost the general election and he now needs to call President Obama to congratulate him. As the ex Governor of Massachusetts is trying to put a brave face and be magnanimous to the winner after his defeat, one cannot help feeling sorry for a man who now realises that he will never ever run for public office again.

Whiteley then sharply shifts the action back to 2006 when the Romney Family are being asked for their opinion of their Patriarch pitching in for a run to become President in the 2008 election.  The consensus of this tightly knit extended family is to encourage the ex Governor in his attempt, even though this will mean several of them pitching in to help run the Campaign. Romney and his wife Ann are particularly close to their five adult married sons who become a constant support and cornerstone for their father’s electioneering.

When Romney’s campaign in the 2008 Primaries falters and he is running neck and neck with John McCain, his chances are scuppered when Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida goes back on his word about being neutral and at the 12th hour backs McCain, thus ensuring  he wins the State, Romney is out of the running.    Its a cruel twist of fate that the Candidate publicly berated for his constant flip-flopping on policies is thus stabbed in the back by one of the worst turncoats in Florida’s political history.

Romney and his family licking their wounds after this defeat collectively say ‘never again’ …. but despite this, four years later and he’s back seeking his party’s nomination, and this time he is the front runner who goes on to become the Party’s Candidate.

Whiteley seems to have been allowed unfettered access to Romney with his family from the very beginning to the final defeat.  It is a very definite attempt to humanise a man who has in the past been universally slammed in the media as being a very cold fish.  This fly-on-the-wall technique works in this case to a certain point but the big problem here is a real lack of credibility to the spontaneity of the occasions when the camera was rolling.  Too many times the conversation seemed stilted and choreographed as if everyone was playing nice and holding back until Whiteley’s crew had left the room. It seems just a tad too unbelievable that in this highly contested fight to be the President that the language and tone didn’t get rougher and tougher than this. Mormons aside that is.

Whatever Whiteley’s documentary claims of being a intimate true portrait of a Presidential Candidate’s campaign pales in significance with the other more revealing footage shot at the same time.  This is the infamous video of the occasion when multi-millionaire Romany casually dismissed half of the country as people who don’t pay taxes and don’t take responsibility for their lives to a group of his well-healed peers.

When the going gets tough for Mitt Romney we learn he evidently does one of two things.  He either prays or obsessively goes around picking up litter.  So I guess if he had been able to convince the electorate he was a much better bet then he did and managed to win, then our Capital would have had much cleaner sidewalks at least.

I’m sure the Romney family will be happy playing  this movie for years, but I like my documentaries a little less staged, and a lot more real.

P.S.  Produced by Netflix, its available Streaming.

★★★★