In "Speechless," you hear the titter-patter of little quips.
It's a secret newspaper movie, one of those mock-'30s, wisecrack-dense jobs that yearns to have been written by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht (and settles for Robert King); the snippy lines and nanosecond-quick comebacks fly about like shrapnel on a nasty battlefield. The setting, however, while still in the media arena, has been dialed one notch over, and instead of reporters, the subjects are political speech writers in a hectic, tight New Mexico Senate campaign.
At least nominally ideologically opposed, the two wordsmiths catch a glimpse of each other in an all-night diner (both have trouble snoozing). They take one look and decide that hormonal combustion is a higher principle than ideological purity. In other words, it could also have been called "Sleeping With the Enemy."
It helps the movie immeasurably that Geena Davis and Michael Keaton play the would-be lovers. He's something of a natural resource, particularly when liberated from the fiberglass pecs and rigid personality that went with the Batman gig. A natural cut-up and charmer, his stock in trade is a sense of almost elfin spontaneity, a talent that "Speechless" makes use of consistently.
Keaton plays Kevin Vallick, a TV sitcom writer with a background as a hired gun in Republican campaign battles. He's brought in to shore up a sagging nominee -- a rigid business type, a millionaire with a heart of asbestos -- who is in trouble. Keaton delivers with a massive charm infusion, and the polls rise.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Davis' Julia Mann, the de rigueur liberal firebrand, is toiling away for a handsome but vapid tree-hugger but also amid the continual sexism and condescension that goes with the territory. Davis is big, smart and beautiful, and while she doesn't have quite the charm firepower of Keaton, her piercing intelligence makes her Julia a formidable force.
For the longest time, the movie offers quite a bit of fun. Its sense of campaign culture is convincing -- odd that it's been all but excised from the advertising, which makes the movie seem like "When Harry Met Sally . . . " -- and it does a good job selling the sense of frenzy, sleeplessness and telescoped time that attends all campaigns, political or military.
A number of lesser characters are niftily sketched, including Bonnie Bedelia as Keaton's boss in the rare role that lets her be a sexy professional woman instead of a long-suffering wife. Ernie Hudson is nice as her opposite number on the liberal side. And the two candidates -- stiffs both -- are neatly played by pompous Mitchell Ryan and Ray Baker.
There's a good bit at the beginning: Kevin lies to Julia about his profession but is caught when he has to appear at a high school career night -- with her! The two fight a vividly amusing and vicious battle, waged in symbolic terms in front of the confused high school kids, that's probably the high point of the film.
But while the movie has a lot of snap and crackle, it never gets the pop part right. It seems to squander the energy at about the three-quarter mark. Perhaps its political timidity is to blame -- it puts a pox on both houses and seems almost generic -- which unfortunately leaves it with no place to stand except the boring middle, not exactly Comedy Central.
But its main problem is the inability to relate the smaller, more fTC personal story of Kevin and Julia to the larger, overarching one of the campaign in any meaningful way. We feel nothing about the campaign as an issue and have no stake in its outcome. In fact, the movie dispenses with the campaign in a rather sloppy and unsatisfying manner, but there's not an emotional connection between that and the final playing out of Julia and Kevin's affair.
The whole thing feels as if it were written by a speech writer high on caffeine, well into his third straight all-nighter. It has the feel of post-midnight despair to it, when writers aren't looking for the right line, but for any line.
"Speechless"
Starring Michael Keaton and Geena Davis
Directed by Ron Underwood
Released by MGM
Rated PG
***