The Contender was flawed, but had a lot of good in it. Particularly Bridges, in what I think is arguably the most well-rounded characterization of a president ever. I hope he gets a nomination. On the upside, there are no easy or cheap villains. It has several original characters--the aforementioned Pres and Allen's character among them--and the dialog is intelligent and literate throughout. While it is sad to say that the only speaking black part is a White House waiter, it does score points with a very nice little bit by a female Secret Service agent--very ambiguous, very well done.
It also had Sam Elliot in a suit looking damn hot for an old guy, and frankly, that counts for a lot. (and you Lebowski fans, let it be known that Bridges bowls in this one, too.)
But it had one serious flaw--the committee was looking for ways to discredit the senator, and so they dug up a sleazy sex scandal.
However, the Senator is an atheist. They didn't need a sex scandal. And they just blitzed right on by this like it was nothing.
I think it would have been far more interesting to see the movie made where the atheism was the serious bone of contention. Given that the people didn't have to elect her, how would the committee be able to reasonably overturn her on grounds of religion? (of course, this begs the question of how she'd become Senator in the first place)
It's not politically biased (a la Sorkin). There is surely a bias towards her resolution of the matter--it's not questioned at all, but merely is accepted without question as an admirable approach.
