Dave

 
Cast & Credits
Dave Kovic.: Kevin Kline
Bill Mitchell: Kevin Kline
Ellen Mitchell.: Sigourney Weaver
Bob Alexander: Frank Langella
Alan Reed: Kevin Dunn
Duane Stevenson: Ving Rhames
Murray Blum: Charles Grodin

Directed By Ivan Reitman.

Running Time: 110 Minutes.
Rated PG

Dave Kovic  runs a temporary employment agency in Georgetown, Washington, DC. As a sideline, he makes appearances impersonating President William Harrison "Bill" Mitchell. When the real President Mitchell suffers a stroke during the affair that leaves him in a coma, Mitchell's devious Chief of Staff Bob Alexander sees an opportunity. Along with Communications Director Alan Reed, Alexander arranges for the President's comatose state to be kept secret, and con Dave into impersonating the president on an ongoing basis by telling him that the country would suffer if the truth was revealed or if Vice President Gary Nance--who they claim is mentally ill--took office. Only his Secret Service bodyguard, Duane Stevenson, and the medical staff tending the real President Mitchell in the White House basement know the truth.

Alexander's true agenda is to exercise the power of the presidency through Dave as a proxy. However, Dave gradually begins to set his own course of action, which revives Mitchell's popularity with the public and mystifies both the Washington media and the First Lady, Ellen, whose public support of her husband has been a cover for bitter marital strife. When, with the help of his accountant friend Murray from Baltimore, Dave takes the extreme action of reworking the national budget in order to save a $650 million program for helping the homeless -- a project the First Lady supported but Alexander wanted vetoed -- Ellen tricks Dave into exposing his ruse.  Despite her initial cynicism, she is soon charmed by Dave's sincere desire to use his position to improve the nation by making it the government's responsibility to guarantee all the nation's citizens a job.

 

 

ASSIGNMENT

  1.   After the President’s stroke, what should actually happen according to the Constitution?  How does the Chief of Staff propose to use the Constitution to achieve power himself?

  2. At the cabinet meeting, Dave decides to rearrange the budget based on recommendations of his friend, accountant Murray Blum.  Does Dave have Constitutional Power as President to rearrange the budget? What other alternatives does the President/Dave have to get what he wants?

  3. Dave announces a plan to eliminate unemployment. How would government achieve that goal, and how would that effect the economy?

 

 

copyright 2006, rogerebert.com