The President is caught in a scandal with only 11 days till the election, he purportedly had sex with a Firefly Girl, kind of like a Girlscout, in the Whitehouse. Enter Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) the world's greatest spindoctor to try and right the sinking ship. He decides that what is needed is a distraction, to make people forget. Brean decides to start a war with Albania in appearence only, just make people think there is a war. With the help of Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) he gets Hollywood producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman) to "produce" their war. Motts gets his friends to help, the Fad King (Denis Leary) comes up with the commercial side of the war and Johnny Green (Willie Nelson) writes the theme song. The supposed war gets going and soon runs into innumerable snags and snafus. But Brean and Motts are professionals and somehow manage to keep coming up with new solutions.
There are some very funny moments in WTD, especially the interchange between Brean and Motts and they way the American public is so easily convinced. As expected De Niro and Hoffman gave good performances. After a while the satire and novelty wear thin, which makes the last half of the movie rather monotonous. Another problem is why should you care if the President is reelected, you never see him and know nothing about him. The idea of Wag The Dog was a very good one unfortunately it did not translate into a good movie.
