A Kooky Watergate Movie

If you like DICK, if you like ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, I think you'll like 18 1/2.

DICK, the 1999 fictional comedy starring Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst, is about two teen girls in Washington, D.C. who wind up becoming the notorious "Deep Throat" secret informant during Nixon's Watergate scandal. One of the girl's has a crush on Nixon and leaves an 18 1/2 minute love message on his tape recorder after they've gained access into the White House. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, is the 1976 political thriller drama based on the true story of how investigative newspaper reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, exposed the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. Their journalism led to President Nixon's resignation from office.

18 1/2, the title, refers to the length of the gap on an incriminating White House tape. Secretary Rose Mary Woods "inadvertently" erased 18 1/2 minutes which should not have been erased. 18 1/2, the new movie, is not exactly a comedy like DICK but it is fictional and has comedy elements. It's not exactly a political thriller but it does have the tension of one. It's sort of a fusion from director/writer Dan Mirvish, a filmmaker who learned a lot from Robert Altman.

The story takes place in 1974, which is the year President Nixon resigned. Connie arrives for a rather clandestine lunch meeting at a Maryland seafood restaurant where "the WonderBread is on the house." She's meeting a bookworm-looking New York Times reporter who prides himself on being more handsome than Walter Cronkite. Connie is a stenographer who transcribes tapes for the White House. She happens to come across a tape that has the reportedly missing 18 1/2 minutes with Nixon and an aide making incriminating comments in the background. She knows this material needs to be heard. However, she also knows she needs to be careful. If the reporter writes about what's on the tape, he could win a Pulitzer Prize. She'd just be out of a job.

She has the tape with her, but they need a reel-to-reel machine on which to play it. The two unmarried characters pretend to be a married couple and check into an oddball motel. They rent the room to listen to the tape. However, there's a glitch. The reel-to-reel machine Connie brought with her doesn't work. They meet an older avant grade married couple also staying at the motel. The couple leans on them to come over for dinner. Connie and the reporter are leary, but the older couple has a reel-to-reel machine that they could possibly borrow.

Will Connie leak the tape? Will the reporter get the story? Will Connie romantically fall for Paul, the newspaper reporter? We shall see in this loopy, likable movie.

The section with Connie and Paul having dinner with the kooky older married couple feels like it runs a bit too long and diverts from the main story. But stay with it. There's a payoff. You will want to see Willa Fitzgerald as the whip-smart stenographer. She rocks that role and John Magaro matches her well as the New York Times reporter. As for the older married woman who is European and always seems a bit tipsy on wine, she'd be played by Jennifer Coolidge in a deluxe HBO production. The character has that kind of vibe. She's played by Catherine Curtin and Vondie Curtis-Hall stars as the bossa nova-loving husband.

During the dinner portion with Connie and Paul, European Lena rises from the table and has a long monologue in which she talks about Nixon and says "Everybody is looking at A when B is really happening...and no one is paying attention."

It's a good monologue. If you're a 40 or 50 something actress and seeking some new audition material -- and if you're willing to transcribe like Connie the stenographer does -- keep this piece in mind.

18 1/2 runs 90 minutes and premieres on Starz on February 1st. It's kooky and entertaining. Good work, Mr. Mirvish.