REAGAN

Here is the decision, plainly. REAGAN tells the whole life of America's 40th President — childhood to death — and it does the thing political biopics so rarely manage: it never gets boring. Director Sean McNamara keeps it lively, lets his actors carry the story, and organizes the sprawl around one throughline — Ronald Reagan's lifelong fight against communism. The result is a stirring story of faith and patriotism.

It earns its four stars largely on Dennis Quaid, who is brilliant as Reagan and just as convincing in quiet marital scenes as in the iconic public ones. Jon Voight, David Henrie, Penelope Ann Miller and a deep supporting cast fill out the world with care.

The content is mild for its PG-13: five mostly light obscenities and some restrained, mostly bloodless violence. If you appreciate a movie that treats Christian conviction and love of country as virtues rather than punchlines, this one is for you. See it — and take the teenagers.

A retired Soviet intelligence analyst in present-day Moscow begins to tell a young politician a story — the story of the American he was once assigned to watch, study, and understand.

From there we follow Ronald Reagan from a hard childhood shadowed by his father's drinking, through the faith he adopts from his mother, into lifeguarding, radio, Hollywood stardom, and the union battles that first set him against communism. A movie star becomes a governor becomes something larger still. The man his enemies studied most closely, it turns out, was the one they understood least.

Four stars, and Dennis Quaid is the reason. His performance is a bravura turn that deserves multiple accolades — equally at home in the intimate scenes and the iconic public ones. The film surrounds him well: Voight is excellent as the KGB analyst narrating Reagan's courage and charisma, Dan Lauria delivers a standout as Reagan's gregarious House nemesis Tip O'Neill, and the rest of the ensemble is genuinely strong.

The craft achievement here is structural. Political biopics can be rather boring; McNamara's hardly ever flags. He trusts his actors and organizes a life crowded with events around a single cohesive spine — Ronald and Nancy Reagan's fight against communism. That focus is what turns a chronology into a story, and a story into something inspiring.

REAGAN wears its convictions openly, and they are convictions Scripture recognizes. The film treats Christian faith as the making of a man: as a boy, Reagan adopts his mother Nelle's faith after reading a novel about a young man reformed and directed by the Gospel, and that faith is presented as the root of everything that follows. His opposition to communism is awakened in church, hearing a Jewish defector describe persecution under Soviet tyranny. The movie honors this without embarrassment.

It is also frankly patriotic and pro-capitalist, framing Reagan's stand against the Soviet Union as a moral fight between freedom and tyranny — "We win; they lose." A viewer looking for even-handedness will not find it here; a viewer looking for a heartfelt tribute will.

The film is honest, too, about cost and failure. It does not hide the pain of Reagan's first marriage, which ends in divorce, or the grief of losing a newborn daughter — even as it celebrates the 52-year marriage that followed. Human loyalty, courage against bullies, and faithful love are all held up as good.

Underneath the politics runs a longing for a world set right, for walls torn down and captives freed. Scripture names the deepest form of that hope: "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1).

REAGAN is that rare political biopic that stays alive on the screen — carried by a brilliant Dennis Quaid and built around a real story of faith, marriage, and moral courage. The cautions are mild, the spirit is generous, and the tribute is heartfelt. So here is our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip. Bring the teenagers, and talk about it on the way home.