Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan Hedaya
Super cute spoofy film about two teeny boppers who innocently witness part of the Watergate burglery and then single handedly and somewhat innocently at first orchestrate the demise of Richard Nison’s presidency in 1972.
Betsy Jobs (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene Lorenzo (Michelle Williams) are trying to mail off an entry to a Bobby Sherman date contest when they accidentally encounter G. Gordon Liddy in the stairwell of the Watergate Hotel where Arlene just happens to live.
A school field trip to the White House sets in motion wacky events followed by suspicions that the girls may know something. President Nixon (Dan Hedaya) befriends the girls and makes them official dog walkers to Checkers as a way to keep them in check. Their continued presence in the White House depcits them as the influence to everything from the President’s use of the word groovy and making peace signs to being instrumental in the Soviet-US peace accords with their magic pot-enhanced “Hello Dolly” cookies that set a room of foreign policy experts, including Kissinger (Saul Rubinek) and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev singing the theme song from the hit show. It’s a ridiculousy silly moment as are most but it’s all in good fun.
As the Watergate break-in gets more press time, the girls soon discover that “Dick” is not the nice guy that he pretends to be; why he doesn’t even like his dog Checkers! In short order they’re contacting the Washington Post and now “top” reporters, portrayed here as super buffoons, Bob Woodward (Chris Ferrell) and the vain, hair-endowed Carl Bernstein (Bruce McCulloch) enter the picture.
At first I thought the film was a little too silly to stomach but as it went along I got into the swing of things. This is really fun stuff.
Lotta says: Hedaya as Nixon is a blast, as is Rubinek playing that “German guy”, Kissinger. Everyone’s a bumbling fool even the girls, but it all works out in the end. Nixon’s gone and they even get the last laugh on that!