Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995                   TAG: 9511170022
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN HORN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

`AMERICAN PRESIDENT'

The new movie stars Michael Douglas as the widowed man in the White House and Annette Bening as the environmental lobbyist who catches the chief executive's newly roving eye. Opening today at the Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall Theatre in Roanoke, the film is being touted even by rival studios as one of the fall's brightest lights and a certain box-office smash.

The enthusiasm is sparked in part by ``The American President's'' kindly stubbornness. Where the media (and rival lawmakers) frequently portray the president as a soulless political creature, Douglas' Andrew Shepherd is warm and human. Against a national backdrop of cynicism and apathy, the filmmakers glorify optimism and persistence. It's almost like the Kennedy years, three decades later.

``The American President'' is also the year's most distinct romantic fantasy: How many people dream of dating the world's most powerful leader?

``I think the movie celebrates the presidency,'' says Rob Reiner, the film's producer and director. ``It asks the question `Can you be a president and a man at the same time?' And it says, `You have to be. In order to be a good president, you have to be a human being.'''

Unlike some movies about Washington (see 1993's ``Dave''), ``The American President'' does not drop real-life politicians into its lifelike Washington sets. There's no mistaking Shepherd's similarities to President Clinton, however, and Richard Dreyfuss' mean-spirited Sen. Rumson is an admitted hybrid of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

But the film's minor messages about gun control and the environment unfold in the background; the real story is about romance on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Shepherd, whose wife died from cancer, is a single parent to a young girl. As much as daughter Lucy longs for a mother, the president misses companionship. Bening's Sydney Wade character meets Shepherd while lobbying for an environmental bill, and the president is immediately smitten.

That core story evolved during nearly two years of screenwriting by Aaron Sorkin, who collaborated with Reiner on 1992's ``A Few Good Men.'' From a novel-length script of 375 pages of heavy political speeches and argument, Sorkin and Reiner trimmed ``The American President'' to a manageable light comedy.

The romance, Sorkin believes, will draw audiences in. Once there, he hopes, they will see the president as he could be and should be seen, not as he is frequently depicted.

``I think the audience is interested in a good story,'' Sorkin says. ``You can have a good story about yaks, and people will watch it. But I think a love story will trump everything else. My biggest fear in writing this was I don't think American adults and the moviegoing audience want to be taught a lesson. I think they resent that.''

Reiner and Sorkin struggled, therefore, in establishing a proper tone for the film. They wanted to make their political points and take shots at conservative Republicans, but they didn't want to turn out a polemic. They sought to concoct a credible romantic comedy, but not to trivialize the importance of the office.

``That was the trick to this whole film - to balance the fact that we have a romantic comedy as the centerpiece of the film and at the same time the backdrop is the president of the United States and the White House, which is a very serious undertaking,'' Reiner says.

As ``The American President'' unfolds, Shepherd is denounced by Sen. Rumson for his relationship with Wade, and the gossip-hungry media grow far more excited about the president's personal life than pending legislation and government.

It looks a lot like the real Washington, and is probably the film's most subtle statement about how decency and relevance are vanishing from the White House.

Little of Sorkin's original, admittedly long-winded script remains in the finished film - except for one scene. Near the end of the film, Shepherd heads to the White House press room podium to defend himself and repudiate smear campaigning. If the movie has a message, it's to be found in the somewhat preachy speech.

Says Sorkin: ``My hope is that perhaps it will shove some people into cutting it [personal attacks] out, knocking it off and getting serious.''