A slightly more serious version of the stuff Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were making 40 years before, this posits the not-too-likely but lightly entertaining question of what the effect on day-to-day US government might be if a widower President were to fall in love. What adds some spice to the formula is that the woman (Annette Bening) for whom the President (Michael Douglas) falls is a political lobbyist with a flag-burning background. A star-laden supporting cast gives the proper weight to some effective dialogue in the story of the fall in the President's popularity when the liaison is discovered. Douglas and Bening are both as believable as the script allows, which means not quite, although you'll enjoy being in their company, and Bening catches well the innate warmth and outward aggression of the woman who finds her unique situation predictably too tough to handle.

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