1) Mitt
It’s important to identify a central question or set of questions at the heart of any documentary, and from the reviews I’ve encountered of Mitt so far, most writers seem to be either misidentifying the film’s principal concern or had hoped for it to be a different—and maybe impossible—movie entirely. Their wish was for a more explicitly searing documentary of sorts, one that more blatantly exposed Mitt Romney as a calculated and power-hungry politician that sneered at the media’s depiction of him and wanted the presidency so he could enforce his Mormon principles on the entire country. Or something.
I invite anyone to go ahead and try to make that movie, but this one is probably better than that one would have been. Mitt has been called an attempt to humanize the Romney family, but it’s probably more accurate to call it a recognition that behind any cultural caricature lies people whose families consider them to be smart and decent individuals.
The Romneys come off as a close-knit group of people who are immensely supportive of each other. At the same time, it points to the fact that they are always aware of the cameras that are around them, and there are plenty of moments where their actions come off as awkward showmanship. This just makes the actual candid moments more valuable and revealing, like Josh Romney demonstrating the difference between what he tells reporters and what he actually thinks, or Mitt and one of his sons arguing over details of airport terminals. It may not be as interesting politically, but personally, this is a fascinating glimpse of a public figure and his family.
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