SOURCE: K., Richard. “Running for President: Fact of Fiction?” Contemporary Review 268, no. 1563 (April 1996): 215–16.

In the following review, the critic offers a mixed assessment of Primary Colors.

Primary Colors is a fictionalized account of Bill Clinton's quest for the presidency, written by an unknown author, his pen dipped in acid. The plotline is as familiar as recent headlines: an ambitious young man emerges from the rural South and gets himself elected Governor of his State. This propels him into a run for President. But his candidacy is flawed, haunted by mistakes of the past—an arrest for participating in an anti-war demonstration and revelations of marital infidelity. If it sounds like the script of a ‘B’ movie, then you probably won't be surprised to learn that Primary Colors is coming to a cinema near you. The Director, Mike Nichols, reportedly just paid over a million US dollars for the...