Dick
                                                                                                                   
Director: Andrew Fleming
Year: 1999
Rating: 7.0
Perhaps, this is the true story of the Watergate break-in that led to the resignation of Nixon. Well, maybe not but it makes for a terrific double feature with All the President's Men. This is a delightful re-telling of the Watergate scandal in which two fifteen-year-old scatter brain girls bring down Tricky Dick. The script is very clever in how it weaves fact and fantasy together to explain certain aspects such as the missing 18-minutes in the tapes, the CREEP payouts, Dean turning witness, the USA-Soviet Agreement on nukes and the withdrawal from Vietnam. World peace thanks to cookies with something extra in the recipe.



It has a wonderful cast though not sure how well known they were at the time. The two teens are played by Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams. Nixon by Dan Hedaya, the President's Men by Dave Foley (Haldeman), Harry Shearer (Liddy), Saul Rubinek (Kissinger) and Woodward by Will Ferrell and Bernstein by Bruce McCulloch and Terry Garr as a mother and Ryan Reynolds in a short scene. Pretty impressive. The two giggly girls steal the film though with their exuberant antics and innocent naivety. Hedaya too is great with his Nixon impersonation showing what a complex deluded man he was. And making Woodward and Bernstein idiots who can't stand each other is perfect.



One of the girls lives at the Watergate and they happen to come across Liddy on the steps inside after they taped the door not to close (how the burglars were discovered). Then in a school outing to the White House they bump into Liddy and accidentally get his list of CREEP payouts. At this point, there was no connection between the Watergate break-in and the White House. Liddy was the connection. Of course, the girls are clueless, but the paranoia ran deep in the White House and they are brought in to see the President and to shut them up, he offers them the job of walking Checkers (who actually died in 1964). But as they bumble about, they witness the shredding, the money, the tapes. It is all quite amusing and sweet and if you disliked Nixon as much as I did, you will love the ending, You Suck, Dick. The film bombed at the box office - I would guess the title didn't help - but since then has become a critical darling.