The story of Lance Armstrong is both amazing and horrific, but it's unclear what purpose was in Stephen Frears's mind when turning it into a film. The story was, after all, one we all watched live as it was happening; and then saw again, with the missing bits filled in, in numerous documentaties and interviews when he finally came clean. 'The Program' reconstructs all this, but Ben Foster in the lead role struggles with his accent and also fails to fully capture Armstrong's intensity; the plot is pretty much accurate but necessarily schematic. Armstrong is a hard man to like, and the film fails to add much depth to his media self-presentation. Perhaps because of this, it spends quite a lot of time with his former protege Floyd Landis; and one wonders if a film centred on the latter might not in fact have given more freedom to explore the subject and develop characters freer of the bonds of Armstrong's too-well established personal narrative. As it is, Frears has produced a film the Guardian called "efficient"; but less efficient, and less emotionally engaging, than the documentary treatments the subject has been given elsewhere.
Review of The Program
