You’d hope a political-insider indie reuniting “West Wing” stars Rob Lowe and Richard Schiff, and informed by the experiences of an actual former spin doctor, would be a small delight. You would be wrong.
“Knife Fight,” co-written by Clinton White House consultant Chris Lehane, meanders aimlessly around too-familiar territory.
Lowe stars as Paul, a seasoned political strategist who calls himself the “master of disaster.” Currently in need of Paul’s skills are a couple of first-class hypocrites running for re-election: a Kentucky governor (Eric McCormack) and self-described family man who’s been sleeping with an intern, and a California war-vet senator (David Harbour) being blackmailed by a disgruntled “masseuse.”
Paul tears around dreaming up new ways to discredit the women involved, with the help of a scurrilous freelance dirt-digger (Schiff) and a whip-smart assistant, Kerstin (Jamie Chung). She’s put off enough by the amorality of Paul’s world that she plans to chuck her political career and go to med school — until they meet crusading free-clinic doctor Penelope (Carrie-Anne Moss) who aims to run for California governor for all the right reasons. A crisis of conscience for Paul looms, in a most un-subtle way.
Lowe is, as always, a fun, intelligent presence; the high point here may be when he busts out the “Parks and Rec”-style catchphrase “LIT-erally.” But his charm can’t rescue this slapdash screenplay. None of these story lines is substantial enough to hang an entire movie on, and yet three of them is at least one too many.
Director Bill Guttentag (“Nanking”) darts from one issue to the next in a way that may well reflect the realities of being Paul. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for a very engaging hour and a half, even with appearances from “Modern Family” star Julie Bowen as a voracious TV anchor named Peaches, and Alan Dershowitz as himself, sleazily representing the litigious masseuse.
Long stretches of conversation are devoted to “insights” about politics that will be of no surprise to anyone with even a passing interest (presumably, the film’s core audience). “You don’t get the outsize talent without the outsize weakness,” Paul tells Kerstin. Well, yes. They could have stopped at the opening- credits photo montage — Clinton, JFK, FDR, Clinton again — and we’d all have gotten the point.