Apolitical Staples

That is how the film Conventioneers is billed as it tells the story of romance between a Republican delegate at the 2004 RNC and a Democrat protester. That was enough of a hook to have me seriously intrigued even though it is nowhere near the �forbidden relationship� that the films press release makes it out to be � think James Carville and Mary Matalin.
Although the characters are cliche, a male Republican from Texas and a female Democrat from New York, they need to be for the Romeo-and-Juliet scenario to work and the laughs (ok snickers) for me came when these cliches were exploited. There is one scene I really like for the attention to detail � Lea Jones (the female lead) is making flags to drape over coffins for a demonstration and she is smoothing out the stripes with an Al Franken book. There is also a lot of very interesting actual footage from the protest around the 2004 RNC.
The plot itself is interesting but it is not a Capulet and Montague set-up, the director obviously favours the Democrat and the movie ends in tragedy for one character only. One such scene illustrates this point. Dylan Murtaugh (male lead) falls hard for Jones and decides that he wants to leave his wife for her. To prove that the relationship can work he crashes a protest lunch planning meeting and the Democrats ridicule him and force him to leave. Of course it is hopelessly naive for Murtaugh to expect to be welcomed in this setting but it also representative of the fact that Murtaugh would never be welcomed into this group. This is the tragedy of the movie for me. And this is why this movie is not a
Romeo-and-Juliet: one side is willing to give up everything (and does) while the other uses the relationship as one last fling before she rides off into the sunset with her playwright fiance (I told you the characters where cliche)
But all false advertising aside this movie is enjoyable and political junkies or groups looking to get a very interesting conversation going will find plenty to enjoy in it.