Thirteen Days

For most of "Thirteen Days," we see no one but men in suits trying to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem. Directed by Roger Donaldson, "Thirteen Days" finds intriguing drama in passionate debate, tricky politics and impossible decisions. Most of the narrative is spent in the war rooms and strategy sessions that find John F. Kennedy and his key advisers trying to determine the appropriate course of action after spy planes identify Soviet nuclear missile sites under construction in Cuba. \n"Thirteen Days" is about the astonishing real-life war game played by capable but flawed people for the fate of civilization. For a film devoted largely to debate and description of scenarios, "Thirteen Days" is incredibly tense. Politicians go toe-to-toe with soldiers over the appropriate philosophical footing for dealing with the Red ideology.\nWe watch brinksmanship played like two kids shoving each other on a school yard. It's the kind of smart film-making of ideas that can keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for a phone to ring, or not to ring.\nBut mostly it's a profile of the courage-under-fire of John F. Kennedy. Plenty of films have chose either to canonize JFK as our great slain king or demonize him as a womanizing rich kid, but never as a compelling dramatic character. As played with a piercing intellect by the dynamic Bruce Greenwood, Kennedy is portrayed as an often short-tempered man with burdens to bear; the acknowledgement of his chronic back pain is one of many effective subtleties in David Self's script. He is also the essence of a great leader, bringing the finest minds together, considering the greatest possible good and finally trusting his own reason and judgment. \nThere are plenty of dramatically fascinating humans in "Thirteen Days" without ever leaving the closed conference rooms of the White House and the Pentagon. Policy can make surprisingly intense cinema, without a breakfast table or report card in sight.