The American President (1995)

Even the most powerful person in the world can feel lonely, and love doesn't care about approval ratings. Rob Reiner's "The American President," written by Aaron Sorkin, sounds like a romantic comedy pitch from the land of wishful thinking, a widowed president falling for a smart, outspoken lobbyist while the whole world watches, but it's actually intelligent, charming, touching and very funny. Granted, it's pure wish fulfillment, but in the hands of Sorkin, who wrote "A Few Good Men," and Reiner, it's thoroughly enjoyable entertainment with plenty to say about both romance and government. Michael Douglas stars as President Andrew Shepherd, a popular widower raising his young daughter in the White House, who, after three years in office, starts to think about dating again. When he meets Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), a sharp, tough environmental lobbyist who's been hired to push a major climate bill through Congress, sparks fly, and the two begin a tentative but heartfelt romance. Naturally, his job keeps getting in the way, from a military crisis that interrupts their evening to the awkward logistics of dating under constant Secret Service protection. Things get even trickier when his political rival (Richard Dreyfuss), a senator gearing up to challenge him in the next election, attacks Sydney's past and questions the president's family values, while the president must decide whether to trade away her environmental bill to pass a crime bill he's championing. The plot may be predictable, with the president finally standing up for the woman he loves and his own convictions, but it's lifted by Sorkin's sparkling, rapid-fire dialogue and an unusually light touch from Reiner. Together they create a believable, bustling White House, with a crack staff played by Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Anna Deavere Smith and Samantha Mathis, along with a plausible, funny dating scenario. But the film's success rests squarely on Douglas and Bening. It's one of Douglas' finest comic performances, and Bening, so often cast as a charming schemer, brings real depth to a standard career-woman role. You can see instantly why he'd fall for her. Marc Shaiman's score earned an Oscar nomination, and Sorkin's vision of the White House paved the way for his TV series "The West Wing." It's one of the best unsung romantic comedies of the 1990s.