Steineded How sad is this?

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Gordon-11 This film is about Tony Blair and his working relationship with Bill Clinton during Blair's years as the British Prime Minister.Michael Sheen portrays Tony Blair in a confident manner, the differences in his character's radiance between the beginning and the end of the film is easily observable. Hope Davis deserves a special mention. I have always thought she looks like Hillary Clinton, and Hope Davis brilliantly portrays a strong, determined, and able lady that remarkably resembles Hillary Clinton.A political film may fall into the trap of becoming propaganda, but "The Special Relationship" does not feel anything like that. It portrays the mutual support between the two countries' leaders. It is a engaging story that is remarkably told and acted.

paul2001sw-1 The joy of writer Peter Morgan's films about British politics is the seductive plausibility of their imaginative reality. Instead of brimming with vicious cynicism, he's more interested in inventing a human dimension behind the strange public faces of figures such as Blair, Brown, and the royal family. In this film, his third featuring Martin Sheen playing Blair as an over-eager schoolboy, the greatest delight came in the deft (and surprisingly soft) portrayal of his wife Cherie. And yet the limits of the approach are maybe more apparent in this film than in the other two, both of which focused on his earlier career. Morgan takes his script in the right direction - to explore how Blair came to support the neo-conservative policies of Geroge W. Bush (although portraying Bill Clinton as Blair's social democratic conscience is frankly a bit rich). But the absence of any focus on British domestic policy seems a bit limiting. Blair's recently published memoirs indicate that a man who once a popular hero who saved the British Labour party from self-destruction now appears in agreement with the right on more than just foreign policy. And in spite of the attractive thesis of Morgan's story, I don't think that this can be entirely explained in terms of personal chemistry. But it's fun to imagine that it was.

Troy_Campbell British actor Michael Sheen portrays real-life figures with an eerie degree of precision. In 2008 he took on the tricky part of down-and-out journo David Frost in Frost/Nixon and absolutely nailed it. Then last year he delivered a remarkable performance as hubristic English soccer coach Brian Clough in the lesser seen drama The Damned United. Now in his the third time depicting the former U.K. PM (first in telemovie The Deal, then in the Helen Mirren-starring The Queen) he mimics Blair's mannerisms, vocal tones and overall personality so perfectly that Blair himself couldn't play the role as well.As the title would suggest though, this drama follows a relationship, which requires a second party. Step in Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton. He doesn't convince on the same level as Sheen – Clinton's highly distinguishable accent evades Quaid to begin with – but it's not long before the seasoned actor gets in a groove and solidly embodies the beguiling American. Helen McCrory and Hope Davis don't have any difficulty managing their supporting characters, the former as Cherie Blair and the latter as Hillary Clinton. Davis especially is pitch perfect as the intriguing and somewhat imperious U.S. first lady.Although, predictably, the movie lives and dies by its performances, the screenplay is clever enough to display these people in events that will allow us to connect with them. In the opening act we see how these two world leaders – Clinton the suavely aggressive big brother, Blair the amenable and awestruck little brother – became friends, then we move on to how they dealt with this 'special relationship' during good times and bad. It's a tremendous friendship to witness, how they and their wives react to certain situations, the Lewinsky humiliation of particular note, indicates what we have probably suspected all along: they are, despite their global status and positions of power, human after all.An insightful drama that invites you into the lives of some very fascinating people.4 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)

borwi00 What was surprising about Blair's relationship with Clinton? This film was a missed opportunity to explore the far more surprising 'special relationship' between Blair and Bush. The film has some great production and sets, but apart from a stand-out superb performance by Hope Davis as Hilary Clinton (a role that she will play again), everybody else come over as slightly out of sync. Michael Sheen spent the whole movie playing the new boy at boarding school, where he was much less convincing than in The Queen. Dennis Quaid was the least convincing, particularly when playing a scene next to Hope Davis. Is there a better Clinton out there? You must think so. All in all it seemed like a wasted 90 minutes, showing very little of the corridors of power, touching lightly on the events of the day. This seemed to be more an issue with the lightness of the events than with the writing as Peter Morgan did a much more convincing job on The Queen. If this is the precursor to Special Relationship 2 - The Gulf War, I would suggest skipping this and finding out why Blair got along so well with someone who was not like him.