If there were a way to create a hybrid version of this film with the biographic presentation from a couple of years ago starring Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan, we'd have a complete winner. Even though that is not possible, I'd still say we have a pretty solid film in “The Brink of War”. Jeff Daniels is just good enough not to kill the movie, and that means something given that Hollywood has tried for years to use Reagan as the butt of a joke,
What this Angel Studios film does is give a story of Ronald Reagan in the style used in Steven Spielberg's version of “Lincoln”. Instead of a comprehensive look at the life of one of our great leaders, it focuses on a specific time and event, one which helped change the world because of the man that Ronald Reagan was. There's been plenty of retconning of Reagan's story in the last 30 years, but “The Brink of War" does a good job sticking to the history, and minimizing the politics of these events.
The meeting between Reagan and Michael Gorbachev, in 1986, was viewed at the time as a failure because it did not produce an arms control agreement. In the end though, the meeting appears to have been significant, not the least of which was because the Soviet leaders recognized that the Soviet policies of the era were not really working. The eventual collapse of the Soviet Union is a direct result of the Kremlin recognizing that the Soviets did not have the resources to fight back in the face of American economic power and the will power of the 40th President to keep to his course of action.
Most of the movie consists of a recreation of the meetings between the two leaders. Reagan is shown to be engaged, thoughtful and with the sense of humor that he was known for. His disarming persona contrasts with the more formal Gorbachev, and Daniels, while not inhabiting the President, does a solid job conveying his real earthiness and desire for peace. The segments featuring Mrs. Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan, who were not together at all during the event, provide us with some appropriate humor as well.
JK Simmons is another Hero of the Day, playing Secretary of State George Schultz, the patrician old school elitist, who recognizes the wisdom of playing it according to Reagan's plan. Simmons becomes the level headed narrator that we needed. This film is a reminder that grown ups once thought out their policies and worked to accomplish them. They did not just dream big, they dared to try.
