Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (December 10, 2024)
As another two-term Republican president prepares to take office, 2024’s Reagan gives us a look at the last GOP POTUS who enjoyed eight years in that job. As expected, we find at look at 40th US President Ronald Reagan.
In the present day, KGB agent Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight) discusses the fall of the Soviet Union with Russian politician Andrei Novikov (Alex Sparrow). Petrovich used to follow President Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid) and he attributes the disintegration of the USSR to that president’s actions.
This leads Petrovich to detail Reagan’s life. He discusses Reagan’s youth in Illinois, his success in Hollywood, and his time in politics.
Given the current fraught climate in the US, it becomes impossible to view Reagan in a political vacuum. Actually, that would become the case no matter when a film of this sort appeared, but the polarized environment of 2024 makes this even more obvious.
In this context, Reagan feels like an odd project, mainly because the 40th president’s views and policies would largely seem out of touch with today’s Republican party. To put it bluntly, the GOP of Reagan’s day went bye-bye years ago, submerged under the seismic shift brought by Donald Trump.
That said, I would prefer to avoid too much discussion of the current GOP and just focus on Reagan’s merits as a biopic. If one ignores political ramifications, how does it fare as a look at Reagan’s life and times?
Not well, unfortunately. Reagan casts an extremely broad net that allows it to cover a lot of ground but never bring us anything insightful.
Though not mentioned in my synopsis, Reagan actually opens with a bit of a teaser. It shows the March 1981 assassination attempt that left the president shot and Press Secretary James Brady severely wounded.
Why? I genuinely don’t know, as it makes little obvious sense to open with this incident and then hop forward to “present day” with Petrovich’s walk down memory lane.
Perhaps the filmmakers felt they needed to launch the film with a literal bang and also to show us Reagan in his presidency right off the bat. I don’t see any real narrative purpose to this, though, especially because it sets up the movie to follow a path it immediately ignores.
This occurs because after the incident, we hear narration from Reagan, a choice that implies the rest of the story will come from his perspective. We then immediately meet Petrovich and hear his voiceover, a choice that abandons the concepts from the prologue.
Honestly, the choice to give us Reagan’s life as told by a former Soviet official exists for one reason: to give the 40th president virtually all the credit for the end of the USSR. That position radically simplifies what actually occurred, a choice that fits with the rest of this dumbed-down biopic.
Admittedly, any 141-minute movie that tries to cover decades in the life of public figure will find itself unable to offer much depth. Reagan does attempt to spotlight its lead’s longtime attempts to fight against Communism, but this never gives us real punch.
Face it: Reagan exists solely to glorify the 40th president. It wants nothing to do with any nuance or view of Reagan as a real person.
Instead, we find Reagan the red-blooded American who never backs off from his fight for what’s right. This means nary a dissenting view appears, so beyond a quick mid-film montage and a tiny nod toward Iran-Contra, don’t expect much reflection on various controversies that cropped up across Reagan’s life and presidency.
Instead, we simply find a glowing view of the man the GOP viewed as the greatest president since Abe Lincoln – well, until the 45th and 47th president entranced them, at least. Reagan provides such a lionizing view of Reagan that it abandons any form of objectivity and exists as a basic vehicle to promote its subject’s greatness.
We do find some talented participants in front of the camera. In addition to Quaid and Voight, we get veterans like Penelope Ann Miller, Mena Suvari, Kevin Dillon, Robert Davi and others.
None of them can bring out nuances in their roles. The screenplay paints the leads as one-dimensional and none of the supporting roles become more than quick guest spots.
Quaid offers a wholly unconvincing performance as Reagan, partly because he fails to nail his character’s exceptionally well-known voice. It doesn’t help that Quaid and others find themselves buried in comically bad attempts to make them look younger.
Despite a career that started 35 years ago, director Sean McNamara demonstrates nothing more than rudimentary skill as a filmmaker. A dramatic biopic seems like a major leap for the man whose fare veers toward kiddie fare such as Cats & Dogs 3, and McNamara can’t pull off this feat.
Whatever one thinks of him as a person or a president, the life and career of Ronald Reagan undoubtedly could become a fascinating tale. Unfortunately, Reagan exists more as a thin glorification of its subject, choices that leave it as superficial and schmaltzy.
Footnote: a mix of bonus elements run through most of the end credits. These include footage of Reagan’s funeral, text blurbs about some of the movie’s subjects, and a reading of a letter Reagan wrote to a youngster.
