This political drama raises a pertinent question – how much does the public deserve to know about a politician’s private life? – but delivers a poorly
considered answer. When the vice president dies, a woman senator (Joan Allen) is selected as his successor. Fighting to stop the appointment is a rabid congressman (Gary Oldman) who accuses her of participating in a sex party during her college years, a charge she neither confirms nor denies because she sees it as “nobody’s business.” As the movie proceeds, any consideration of responsibility and character fall by the wayside, even as the cop-out of an ending intrinsically admits that such things matter.
