Movie Review

What could be funnier than Richard M. Nixon? That voice, those jowls, the gargoyle hunch. Mimics David Frye, Rich Little, and Dan Aykroyd won fame by socking it to Tricky Dick. Portrayals by Jason Robards, Rip Torn, Philip Baker Hall, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and the baritone James Maddalena suggested that if Nixon were not so chilling, he would be hilarious. Small wonder, then, that a film industry that recycles every baby boom icon from The Fugitive to Fred Flintstone would cast the Unindicted Co-conspirator in a teenage sex comedy. The president of the United States cavorting with giggling young women? Unbelievable.	1
Andrew Fleming's satirical film Dick is part slumber party, part "Peabody's Improbable History," and most surprisingly, part documentary. Released on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Nixon's resignation, the film centers on Betsy Jobs (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene Lorenzo (Michelle Williams)—the dimmest teenagers to gate-crash the White House since two time-traveling slackers taught Abe Lincoln to play air guitar in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989). Arlene lives in the Watergate, where she and Betsy witness the June 1972 break-in—portrayed accurately as a mission by professionals in business suits and rubber gloves, not as the fabled "third-rate burglary." A few days later, Betsy and Arlene recognize G. Gordon Liddy while touring the White House on a school trip. Whisked to the West Wing for interrogation, they meet the president when first dog King Timahoe flees its cursing owner ("Damn it, Checkers!"). Told that the teenagers know too much (a profound overstatement), the president buys their silence by appointing them "official White House dog walkers" and "secret youth advisers to the president."	2
Hijinks ensue. Solving mysteries that elude historians, the film amusingly suggests the reason for the infamous tape-recorded gap of eighteen and one-half minutes and unmasks Deep Throat, the informant of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Nodding to the "retro" revival, the film is awash in bell-bottoms and vintage television commercials ("I can't believe I ate the whole thing"). Some topical humor may be lost on today's students, but the film does introduce most of the president's men—as well as the pertly loyal Rose Mary Woods. Chatting with White House Counsel John Dean (who is thanked in the film's credits), Betsy and Arlene ask pointedly, "Why does the president need a lawyer?" Other scenes are sheer fun. The teenagers unwittingly serve marijuana brownies at the 1973 summit meeting. The ensuing harmony leads not only to an arms accord but also to a memorable chorus of "Hello, Dolly"—sung by Leonid Brezhnev, John Ehrlichman, Nixon, and Henry Kissinger (played with lusty megalomania by Saul Rubinek). Later in the film, Betsy's pot-inhaling brother (a dead ringer for the young Bill Clinton) suggests that those magic brownies might explain the president's intense paranoia.	3
After witnessing the Watergate burglary, Arlene (Michelle Williams, center) and Betsy (Kirsten Dunst) are appointed "secret youth advisers" to President Richard M. Nixon (Dan Hedaya) in the Columbia Pictures/Phoenix Pictures prersentation, Dick. Photograph by John Medland, Mami Grorssman, and Kerry Hayes.   . . . There are about 633 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.