Tears for what went before the new regime

A word of warning: The Final Year may make you cry. If you feel despair at the prospect of a racist, sexist, inarticulate liar holding the highest office in the world, you will despair even more at the memory of a time when none of that was true.

Greg Barker’s documentary follows U.S. president Barack Obama through his last 12 months in office, mostly through the eyes of some of his closest staff: national security advisers Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes; UN ambassador Samantha Power; and vice-president John Kerry, whose great quote in this film, spoken to Russian officials at the UN, is: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”

The Obama administration was flawed. That’s a given; they all are. But we see these people jetting around the world, doing their damnedest to leave the planet in a better state than they found it, whether through climate-change agreements, rapprochement with Iran and Cuba, brokering a Syrian ceasefire, or something as simple and moving as organizing the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Hiroshima.

Barker conducts a few interviews, but the film is strongest when it just leans in to observe. Power attends a swearing-in ceremony for new citizens, speaking through tears about coming to America from Ireland at the age of nine. Rhodes, on his way to an aircraft, mentions to a colleague in passing: “The last thing that this world needs is more walls.” The film introduces the White House press secretary, a guy with the antiquarian name of Josh Earnest.

And as the final year dwindles to the final days, a new president prepares to take office. His first year concludes on Jan. 20. The story of those 12 months will no doubt make a fascinating documentary one day. It may even make you cry. ∂∂∂

The Final Year opens Jan. 19 in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Regina and on demand.

Barack Obama