Some movies just don't work. "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" is one of them. Based on the true story of Sam Byke (Bicke in the film), the film details his attempt to hijack a passenger jet and slam it into the White House in 1974. The film is a downer in every sense of the word, and as (surprise!) disturbing as it is incomplete.
We meet Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) as he squirms in his seat, lectured by his crooked boss to take a lesson from "Richard Nixon, the greatest salesmen of them all." "What good is good in times like these?" he later wonders. Miserable at his furniture sales job, disgusted by the injustice of the world, and separated from his wife (Naomi Watts) and their three children, life has not turned out as planned for the painfully neurotic Sam. Living alone, he spends his afternoons babbling about the inequality of the system to his auto mechanic friend Bonny (Don Cheadle). It's clear that Sam is holding onto his sanity by the thinnest of threads.
Unfortunately, his life rapidly disintegrates from bad to worse. Denied a loan to open his own "honest" business, served with divorce papers, and evicted from his apartment, Sam promptly loses it altogether. We watch in horror as he descends into mania, madly scheming in his filthy apartment to kill Nixon, the perceived source of his troubles. The movie climaxes in a terrifying bloodbath aboard a passenger jet, during which Sam and a number of passengers are shot to death.
Part political commentary, part character study, "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" fails to deliver on either front. In fact, writer and Tufts alum Niels Mueller, in his directorial debut, has found the perfect anti-crowd pleaser: a movie that manages to both disturb and confuse without providing any clear point. What are we supposed to learn from Sam? Why did no one in his life attempt to help him? How had he become a neurotic mess?
Perhaps Mueller, whose previous writing credits include "13 Going on 30," bit off more than he could chew with this film. It is, to say the least, ambitious, but at 95 minutes, it is far too short to truly explore a character as complicated as Samuel Byke. If only "The Lord of the Rings" could have donated a half hour of screen time to "Assassination."
Despite the movie's shortcomings, however, Sean Penn turns in another inspired performance, following up his brilliant turns in "Mystic River" and "21 Grams." Penn very well may be the best actor of our generation. His Sam Bicke is utterly genuine, an unsettling glimpse of idealism gone horribly wrong.
Naomi Watts, almost unrecognizable as a brunette, does her best but cannot overcome script problems - it's unimaginable that the wimpy, world-hating, paranoid Bicke could have wed her. Don Cheadle rounds out the small cast, deftly providing Sam's grounded, realist opposite. Here again, however, Mueller fails to provide any foundation for their friendship; how are we supposed to believe that the cool, collected mechanic would have anything to do with a weirdo like Sam?
Likewise, Bicke's transformation from fretful salesman to cold-blooded psycho occurs too quickly. Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," upon which "Assassination" draws heavily, carefully plots DeNiro's development from disillusioned loner to raving psychotic as he drives around in his cab. Mueller appears impatient, fast-forwarding through these establishing moments to get to the climax.
Interestingly, President Nixon continuously appears on television throughout the film, professing his innocence and serving as a focal point of Bicke's anger. Yet again Mueller's script fails us; he refuses to show enough of Nixon's various speeches for us to fully understand and appreciate his role in the film. Does Mueller want us to empathize with Bicke, sharing in his hatred of the morally corrupt Nixon White House? Does he seek to draw parallels with our current administration?
The film, however, is not without its pleasures. The score, made up almost entirely of Beethoven concertos, provides an interesting backdrop to the on-screen insanity. Other tracks include those from famed conductor Leonard Bernstein, with whom Bicke has a running imaginary dialogue.
Overall, "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" feels incomplete. With a better script and an extra half hour of footage, this film could have been truly fascinating. As it is, however, Penn's gritty performance may be the only thing worth the price of admission. One wonders what might have been had Mueller waited a little longer to make this film. Alas, he did not.
