I like this book because I like to follow politics; real politics.  While I did not read his first book, The Best Laid Plans, the author did well enough to fill me in on what had happened.  In many ways this book borders on fantasy: a scrupulously honest politician? Crises of conscience? Ministers resigning honorably?  When have we ever seen that in Ottawa in the last 30 years?  And did we fall into a time warp? The Progressive Conservatives still exist and there’s no Bloc Quebecois?

I know this is intended as a humorous book, but I felt the author leaned far too heavily on stereotypes.  The stereotypical crazy Scot, Angus McLintock; the backroom operator, Bradley Stanton; the feisty senior, Muriel Parkinson; the negative campaigner, Emerson “Flamethrower” Fox; the punk rockers Pete 1 and Pete 2; and the religious fundamentalist, Alden Stonehouse.  The only two characters that were half-way ordinary were McLintock’s campaign manager Daniel Addison, and his girlfriend Lindsay.  Even so, Daniel comes across, rather annoyingly, as some kind of lovesick puppy when it comes to Lindsay.

Speaking of Alden Stonehouse, I think the author missed the boat with this character.  Fallis merely used him as a vehicle for splitting the conservative vote with Angus McLintock’s opponent, Flamethrower Fox.  But, being a religious fundamentalist, he ought to have been all over Daniel Addison for his unmarried living arrangement with Lindsay.  It was a plot twist begging to be exploited, yet the author passed it by.

Still, despite it’s shortcomings, this was a pretty satisfying book, depicting political leaders doing the right thing, something we as voters all hope for.

Robert Redford heads and directs an all-star cast telling a story that brings the audience back to a time in American history that many would rather not talk or even think about.  It is the early 1970s.  The war in Vietnam is dragging on with no apparent end in sight.  Student protesters are becoming dissatisfied with their ineffective peaceful tactics for ending American involvement.  A radical and violent movement forms to bring the war to domestic soil.  They are dubbed The Weather Underground, and they become notorious for a series of bombings of domestic government targets throughout the country.

In this story, a cell of this movement has committed a bank robbery in Michigan in which a security guard was shot and killed.  Three of the members of the cell believed to be involved were never caught and remained at large; that is until one of them, Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), decides to turn herself in after 30 years, and is arrested on the way to doing just that in Albany, NY.  A local reporter, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), begins poking around the story and soon discovers that a local lawyer, living under the alias Jim Grant (Redford), is actually another wanted member of that cell and exposes him in print.  This sends Grant on the run, not to escape, but to seek a third member of the cell, Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), who he believes can clear him in the robbery and murder.

Reporter Shepard pursues him to Michigan, followed closely by the FBI.  While there he meets the policeman that headed the investigation at the time, Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson).  He also meets Rebecca Osborne (Brit Marling), Osborne’s adopted daughter, who turns out to be a key figure in the story, and not just a source of information.

While we’re on the subject, I have a real problem with the casting choice for the character of Rebecca Osborne.  At the time of production and release of this movie, Brit Marling was no more than 30 years old, while the facts of the story put her character much closer to 40 than 30.  The producers made no attempt to depict her as the age she realistically ought to have been.  They made a weak attempt to rationalize this by giving Shia LaBeouf the line, “You’re older than you look.”

Call this a political opinion if you want, but the whole tone of this movie really bothers me.  It presents this group with great sympathy when they were really little more than domestic terrorists, using the violence of the government as a justification for their own violent behavior.  Call yourselves a political movement and you can rationalize almost anything.

As I said at the start, this was an all-star cast, with appearances by Sam Elliot, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Jackie Evancho, and others.  BTW, Harry Potter movie fans will recognize Brendan Gleeson as none other than Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody.