AllMovie

Say what you will about Bill Clinton, there's no denying that he's inspired filmmaking like few presidents before him. Love him or hate him, in the '90s there was a film to reflect your opinion, be it aligned with the Rush Limbaugh-inspired conspiracies of Murder At 1600 or the idealized fantasy Clintons like the character played by Michael Douglas in The American President, the kindhearted, strong-willed liberal many of Clinton's supporters always wanted him to be. (See also TV's The West Wing). The Ivan Reitman-directed Dave manages to combine a little of both types of films, offering a jaded, debauched, opportunistic liberal president replaced by a compassionate doppelganger. Dave gets a lot of mileage out of the notion that politics would be better if run with the common sense of an ordinary person. It's a willfully naive, but deeply appealing fantasy here made convincing by Kevin Kline's enjoyable performance and a smart, funny script from Gary Ross. All involved keep a light touch throughout, making this particular fantasy Clinton all the more seductive.