Everything Is Correct in Political ‘Dave’

In “Dave,” an ordinary guy hired to impersonate the President in harmless situations gets caught up in the White House chief of staff’s Machiavellian schemes after the real President has a stroke. (Rated PG-13)

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It is telling, perhaps, that after seeing this political comedy, kids’ favorite descriptive word, next to funny , was realistic .

Do they think the White House would actually hire a look-alike for the President, that there would really be evil plotters in the White House who would cover up the facts of the President’s disabling illness for their own gain? “Yeah!” 12-year-old Dana said without missing a beat.

Well, OK, me too.

It was so realistic that some kids even considered it educational.

“It teaches politics,” said Lisa, 12.

Besides learning a lot about power and corruption, she said, she picked up some other interesting tidbits: what the monuments in Washington look like, how huge the President’s bedroom is, and that there are secret tunnels under the White House that even the guards don’t know about.

Does she really think they really exist? “No. Well, yeah.” Me too.

But few were aware that part of the sense of realism came from at least a dozen real-life legislators, journalists and TV personalities who played themselves--people such as Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), journalists Helen Thomas, Nina Totenberg and Larry King.

“I knew the TV (McLaughlin) group,” said Amanda, 11. “I knew Jay Leno. I knew one senator, the one with white hair.” Lisa thought she recognized Siskel and Ebert, but it was actually Evans and Novak.

But despite the talking heads, the kids found laughs throughout the movie.

Said Kristi, 9, “I liked it when the police pulled them (the impostor and the First Lady) over.” To avoid trouble, they both claim to be impersonators “and they start to sing ‘Tomorrow’ and the policeman tells the guy, ‘I think you’re great, but your wife needs work.’ ”

Amanda laughed when Dave describes his fictional girlfriend as “American and Polynesian--Amnesian.”

There is a brief sex scene (that precipitates the stroke), but Kristi didn’t think the movie was too mature for her.

The only problem with the movie, the kids agreed, was that there were just too many prominent characters. “It was hard to keep track,” said Julie, 13.

Lisa complained that the vice president, introduced early, didn’t appear again until nearly the end, when she couldn’t remember him. “They should have had less characters,” she said.