“Mitt”: The Movie Behind the Candidate

Choices have consequences and over the years I’ve been involved with promoting many brands and politicians, I have almost always found that American consumers are usually pretty good when it comes to the choices they endorse or the “stuff” that they choose buy.

Good products perceived to be a good value with redeeming qualities and benefits almost always succeed.  (Well there was our brief flirtation in the 70s with the Pet Rock, there’s the annoying ever-present Chia-Pet, and of course the Kardashian’s TV ratings for which we should all be held responsible as a consuming society.) But most of the time we vote with our dollars, our heads and our hearts for the products that will serve us best over time and which usually turn out to be a sound and wise consumer choice.  

Our homes, our cars, our investments, our TV viewing habits…

Every once in a while we consumers make a mistake.  The ads on TV always make things look bigger and better.  Everything on television is sexy, always working perfectly,  (even the amazing Salad Spinner from Ronco, not available in any store.)

We look at the facts as we see them, we listen to the pitches and carefully consider the products claims (does any car beside a Lamborghini really go from 0 to 60 in under 10 seconds?)  Often products on TV seem better than they are once we buy them.  Unless there is a no hassle money back guarantee, every once in awhile we get stuck with something less than we thought we were getting… like say, a president.

The other evening my wife and I watched the Netflix original documentary “Mitt” which chronicles a 6 year behind the scenes look at Governor Mitt Romney and his family as he pursued first the 2008 GOP nomination for president, and subsequently the 2012 campaign which ultimately resulted in his defeat to President Obama. 

The Mitt Romney we meet in this film is very different than the Mitt who ran for president, if for no other reason than he is seen as more dimensional, more complex and more human.  This is the Mitt Romney that everyone who knew him, knew him to be.  Incredibly dedicated to his family, his faith and doing the right thing for the country.  “Mitt” the movie provides an intimate look at what it’s like to run the marathon that is the modern day presidential campaign.  It also shows us retrospectively that Romney; the man, is a genuine, caring soul whose dedication to his wife, kids and what seem like “binders full” of adorable grandchildren, is truly an inspiring human being.

Allowing the film to be shot is one thing.  Allowing difficult moments to make the final cut and air for the entire world to see… that’s quite another. That’s exactly what the Romneys agreed to in allowing the filmmakers to release this movie.

Intimate moments with the candidate and his wife and family involved in strategy sessions that at first seem too revealing to be true, begin to make even the most cynical political type slowly realize that these people really are like this!  Mitt Romney turns out to be the husband, father and grandfather every man hopes he can be, but in comparison likely makes me us all feel just a little inadequate. “Mitt” is incredibly self deprecating, reassuring, comforting and confident, sometimes awkward, yet even at the most stressful times imaginable, (like before a nationally televised presidential debate) immensely human and incredibly likeable.

Romney himself is uncharacteristically unguarded, genuine and emotional.  He is at the same time forceful and determined when challenged by either Barack Obama or one of his five sons; all of whom can claim with proud accuracy to have one of the greatest fathers in America.

To see the Romneys kneel at Prayer in a budget hotel with the remnants of a drive thru dinner scattered around the place is quite something. For the solemn moment to be interrupted by the shrill chirping of Tagg Romney’s cell phone brings us back to the reality of the modern campaign.

To witness the grueling schedule, Mitt sleeping on the floor of the campaign plane, looking for a back stage bathroom, asking everyone and no one in the room: “This a bathroom back here?” before the first presidential debate in Denver.  Sitting quietly in that awful terrible place known in presidential campaign advance parlance as “the hold”-an unspecific purgatory of waiting for the cue to “move” allowing the candidate a precise (but seemingly spontaneous) entrance. It can be in an elevator, a car, a green room, or under the dusty bleachers of an Iowa high school gymnasium.

“Mitt” is an incredibly inspiring look at the candidate and more importantly the man who is Mitt Romney.  There’s the awkward nervous voyeurism of the candidates suite on election night in Boston when it becomes clear to Romney and his family that he has lost. The candidate anticipating the inevitable need for a concession call to Obama inquires: “Anyone got the president’s number?” “I didn’t think about that.”  “I have it,” says someone off camera.  Mitt smiles through what every viewer knows must be one of the most extraordinarily difficult and disappointing moments in his life. 

There are so many sides of Mitt Romney in this film surprisingly shared with the audience.  There’s Mitt the Compulsive with his almost Felix Unger like need for neatness and order, obsessively collecting trash from a hotel room balcony, grandkids playing at his feet.  There’s Mitt the Perfectionist, revealing how his advisors have coached him to accomplish multiple steps in answering each question during debates and lamenting about the fact that he needs to accomplish all of it in just 30 seconds.  “I’ve tried it, practiced it in my head…there’s no way to do all of that in 30 seconds!”

There’s Mitt the Dad who playfully takes a ribbing and more than his share of constructive advice from all 5 adult Romney sons… at once! He does so patiently and willingly.  (I have two sons and when they get going on me about something in unison I occasionally find myself begging for mercy!)

While Romney himself comes across as a gentle, capable, willful and all too human a guy, it is Ann Romney who steals the show.  She is clearly Mitt’s partner and biggest fan.  She is unafraid to offer her thoughts and does. She is constant witness as her husband withstands withering attacks on his character, success, record in office and positions on the issues. 

“The greatest performances,” John Barrymore once said, come from those actors who say it all without saying a word.  Ann Romney is not an actor, but she can say more with one look, the wipe of a single tear, one pained expression of exhaustion than is fathomable.

“The Flipping Mormon” is how Romney sums up what his opponents tried to define him in the 2008 primary campaign.  “If that’s who I am then I’m a flawed candidate” Romney laments.  His family and Ann say nothing… the moment is candid… once again awkward. 

Everyone should see “Mitt.”  Every candidate thinking about running for president, his or her wives and husbands, children and grandchildren.  In fact anyone considering running for just about anything in American politics today should watch this movie and learn.  Learn what to expect and learn what running and ultimately losing with grace, dignity and humility really look like. It’s enough to keep good guys, guys like Mitt Romney from running at all.

I wonder how many Americans who did not vote for Romney will see this film?  I wonder more that those who do-especially the ones who voted for Barack Obama, or didn’t vote at all, feel about the elections outcome?  Are they satisfied with their choice?  Did they get the best deal?  The right product?  Do they have buyer’s remorse?  After all, there is no money back guarantee in presidential elections.

The election of 2012 was a choice and the American people got to choose.  Good products, the ones with the best-perceived value, the ones that benefit the consumer almost always are successful.  American consumers usually get it right.   But in 2012 “Mitt” proves, that every once in a while…we get it wrong, very very wrong.

“Caveat Emptor!” as the Latin phrase goes…

“Let the buyer beware!”