One of the most interesting scenes of this latest Netflix Original depicts Tagg (or one of Romney's other whimsically named sons) being asked the question of whether it's all worth it. He gives us two different answers, first the trained answer he would give to the media, and then the real one. They don't quite contradict, but what's striking is that the second one is so much more appealing and earnest than the first. The first achieves a consultant-enriched buzzword density, but the second elicits actual human feeling.
Does this mean politicians and their campaigns should speak from the heart, and be themselves? Probably not. Saying what a candidate actually thinks (or "going off message" as the pundits call it) leaves open the possibility of making an error which would then get played again and again and again through all the media channels. Successful candidates must be disciplined.
That being said, this movie is not without its own biases. It's clearly filmed and put together with a friendly eye--with the right editing and enough footage one could make Gandhi seem like a petty unlikeable hypocrite and Josef Stalin like an earnest compassionate saint. But the family dynamic behind the scenes was touching, and wholesome enough to make It's a Wonderful Life look dysfunctional.
This fuzzy grandpa Romney is clearly only one side to the man though, and at one point we get a sense of the competent rational boardroom shark in the suit. He's arguing with some debate organizers about the format, and the strategizing assertiveness comes out then.
And even while this documentary does give a sense that Mitt the man is less of a phony than Mitt the politician, the system as a whole is left looking phonier than ever for forcing a distinction between the two.
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