DEAD MAN TALKING
I’m not sure how Rene Auberjonois wound up in “Raising Buchanan,” but I’m glad he did. He’s the reason to see the film, written and directed by Arizona-based Bruce Dellis and filmed in the Valley and in Prescott. In one of his last roles, Auberjonois (who died in December of 2019) plays the title character, President James Buchanan.
The film revolves around the theft of his corpse and the increasingly dismal chances of getting some sort of ransom for it. There are some interesting ideas on display, but the film is underwritten; a few more passes at the script might have tightened things up. As it stands it’s OK, but you get the idea it could have been much more than that.
Ruth (Amanda Melby) is a down-onher-luck woman working in a Phoenix doughnut shop. She’s on probation for a bunch of petty crimes, way behind on her finances, trying to convince her probation officer (Terence Bernie Hines) that playing the cello for a bizarre ventriloquist (Steve Briscoe) counts as community service and waiting on her father (the great M. Emmet Walsh) to die before he wears out his welcome at a hospice facility. She rents a child to pose as her son when she visits him.
So, yeah, Ruth has a lot going on, little of it good — for her or the audience; the film meanders too much, robbing the story of momentum.
Ruth and her roommate Meg (Cathy Shim) learn that Buchanan’s body is in Scottsdale for genetic testing. He is widely considered, we are told several times, to be the worst president in history.
Maybe. A running joke in the film is that whenever anyone says this, it’s followed by a shrug and, “Well. …” It’s a funny dig at the current resident of the White House, and about as political as the movie gets.
It dawns on Ruth that she could steal Buchanan’s body (her other roommate, Holly, played by Jennifer Pfalzgraff, works at the testing facility), then hold it for ransom, with the proceeds going to pay off her many debts.
The problem, Ruth learns, is that there’s not a big ransom market for such a footnote to history. No one wants to pay to get Buchanan back.
The best parts of the film by far are the scenes in which, in her head, Ruth and the ghost of Buchanan discuss things like his place in history, the morality of slavery or her problems. Melby is good, though seems miscast as such a loser (she comes off as too nice). But Auberjonois is terrific, and has a nice chemistry with her. He pulls off the neat trick of remaining sympathetic, someone to root for, while never really improving his status as such an awful leader. It’s an impressive performance, one that “Raising Buchanan” could have used more of.