By the people, for the media

You see "The Contender" and you realize the level of puritanism in the United States, at least in terms of politics as presented by the media for public consumption. Not that we need a movie to remind us of this -- it wasn't too long ago that the private antics of a respected president were so horribly publicized. And just when we had almost forgotten about that little incident, "The Contender" is here to knock over the gravestone and drag out the corpse all in the name of good entertainment. It even mentions Bill's name a few times, as in lines like: "Let's remember what happened to Clinton. He got through it all right."

The centerpiece, however, is a woman, and for the record, Mr. Chairman, she doesn't smoke cigars. Joan Allen plays a senator who is handpicked by the powers in the Oval Office to become vice president. Opposing forces in the Capitol seek to destroy her nomination with a salacious sex scandal. For weeks, the nation tunes into the hearings that accuse her of awful things she did or didn't do with one or more sexual partners. Masterfully executed and excellently performed, the only big flaw in "The Contender" seems to be that this came after the Clinton-Monica thing and, therefore, we're pretty much immune to all the gratuitous details. After all, theirs is a hard act to follow. Anything that comes on its heels is in danger of being yawned at: "So politicians have sex. What's new?"

So director/writer Rod Lurie went on a gamble. He tailor-made the story specifically for Allen and engineered it so that whether "The Contender" soars or remains hovering a couple of feet from the ground will depend on Allen's power to convince and captivate. Lurie's bet was that people will sit in their seats in complete enthrallment.