Review – Dick

Imagine the Watergate scandal as an extended Saturday Night Live sketch. And we’re talking the new SNL cast (several of whom are actually in the movie, including Jim “Goat Boy” Breuer as John Dean and Will “Cheerleader Bit” Ferrell as Bob Woodward). The kind of sketch they usually run in the last half hour. Throw in prime miscasting like Harry Shearer as G. Gordon Liddy and Dave Foley as Bob Haldeman, and you can pretty much see where this is going. The basic premise is that two ditzy blonde teenagers (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) become disenchanted with Richard Nixon, eschew their jobs as official Checkers walkers, and jointly become Deep Throat. The resulting parade of witless plot twists and dick jokes is almost completely charmless, the upshot apparently being that Tricky Dick was a kindly old guy who was betrayed by stupid advisors, even more stupid journalists, and a couple of conniving airheads. The young protagonists are vaguely likable, but they just aren’t anywhere near enough to carry the rest of the movie. See if desperate