Dick

Back before it was revealed that Mark Felt was the Watergate source "Deep Throat," I'll bet you wondered: "Maybe Deep Throat is a couple of fifteen-year-old girls." That's the premise of the sublimely funny Dick, which posits that the Nixon presidency was brought down by a pair of not very bright schoolgirls.

I saw the film on its release in 1999, but I think I enjoyed it more this time, as it is unadulterated bliss, which manages to be a wicked satire and a sweet teen comedy. Nixon apologists won't like it, but what do they know?

Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams are Betsy and Arlene. It is 1972 and they worship Bobby Sherman. On the way to mailing a letter to him, they encounter G. Gordon Liddy (Harry Shearer, armed with mustache). Arlene, you see, lives in the Watergate complex, along with her mother (Teri Garr). Later, on a field trip to the White House, Liddy spots them, and in order that they don't identify him, are taken on a private tour of the West Wing, where they meet the president (Dan Hedaya), who is charmed by them and offers them a job walking Checkers.

The two love the job, though no one believes that they have it. They, in turn, are loved by the staff, because of the cookies Betsy bakes. It seems that they have a secret ingredient--the cannabis that her brother hides in the jar of walnuts. This leads to a great scene involving a high Leonid Brezhnev singing "Hello, Dolly," accompanied by Henry Kissinger.

Arlene gets a crush on Nixon, which leads to a variety of lines of dialogue along the lines of "I love Dick," which you would think would get tired but doesn't. When they listen to the tapes he makes in his office, though, and finds out he doesn't really like Checkers, they end up calling the Washington Post.

Will Ferrell today can be insufferable, as he seems to think he need only make a face and he's funny. But here, back before he was a movie star, he's great as Bob Woodward, with Kids in the Hall member Bruce McCullough as Carl Bernstein. The film portrays them as pompous twits in a jealous rivalry with each other. They end up meeting with the two girls and, well, history is made.

I had a wide smile on my face the whole way through this film. The performances are great--Dunst and Williams are inspired as the not very bright but enthusiastic girls, while Hedaya is perhaps the best film Nixon ever--forget Anthony Hopkins. In addition to Ferrell and McCullough, other SNL and Kids in the Hall players are on hand, including Dave Foley as Haldeman and Jim Breuer as John Dean, who is moved to turn on Nixon by the girls.

The film was directed by Andrew Fleming, and it's a lovely candy-colored view of the 1970s, complete with a killer soundtrack. The closing shot, of a disgraced Nixon leaving the White House via helicopter, is set to Carly Simon's, "You're So Vain."

I think Leonard Maltin said it best about this film: a cross between Clueless and All the President's Men.