It is 1970 and Elvis is in deep funk. He sees the kids losing faith in America, defying the law, race- rioting in the streets. He just knows that drugs are the cause, and the country needs his help bad. He conceives of the idea of going undercover as a Federal Agent-at-Large, appointed by the president, so that he can infiltrate these subversive groups, which include the Black Panthers.

Although the history of the event is spotty, screenwriters Joey and Hanala Sagal and Cary Elwes have used the actual White House meeting of the title duo – the outcome of that funk – to concoct a mildly entertaining but benign goof of a movie; your faint smile should last an hour before you forget the whole thing.

Still, director Lisa Johnson does a fairly nimble job of keeping this silliness afloat, as long as you don’t take it seriously. But when it comes to history, I’m kind of a hard case. I tend to remember the real people involved, and those memories can pin-prick the fun flat. Surprisingly, it’s not Kevin Spacey’s often hilarious Nixon toon that pops the bubble here but a miscast Michael Shannon as Elvis.

Now, nobody is a bigger fan of Michael Shannon than I am, but the King? Really? Even standing still Elvis was gorgeous, but in motion…who can duplicate that? The problem is not the costumes or the hair, which are dead-on. It’s that Shannon gives us a wan, dispirited Elvis who is so depressed that he seems to be wasting away. Physically. The real Elvis, even when grotesquely fat, was physically dominating. Just as overpowering was his appetite for life, which consumed him. I might have accepted that he became so disturbed by what he saw that he took it as a spiritual calling to save the country. But he would have done that with passion, just like everything else. The Elvis shown here is just low-wattage, lacking both vigor and sensuality.

But, as I said, this may be a personal thing. If it doesn’t bother you, there’s some bright comedy here, especially when comparing the Nixon White House with the the King’s entourage. It seems that the president’s men formed a total cocoon around him, and were so driven to protect his mission, as well as one-up each other, that they could accept even this wacky idea as a gift. They convinced Nixon it would help his image to be linked with a cultural icon of American youth, as well as boost the war on drugs. Colin Hanks as Egil Krogh and Evan Peters as Dwight Chapin handle most of this action, and it hums pleasurably.

Even so, Nixon was resistant to the idea until daughter Julie commands him, by telephone, to deliver a personal autograph and picture.

By contrast, the Graceland contingent is loose and warm, and not at all reluctant to scowl when inconvenienced by the King’s demands. His best buddy, Jerry, truly loves Elvis, but is put in a spot when the WH meeting conflicts with his plans to meet his girlfriend’s parents, jeopardizing his marriage hopes. While this subplot is given a lot of screen time – without a single laugh – it never convinces because Alex Pettyfer plays Jerry as almost a city-bred liberal type; nowhere near the Tupelo time zone.

The actual meeting is kind of fun, and Shannon manages to emboss an irony onto the event that, while witty, is very doubtful: that Elvis really viewed Nixon as an equal, as one on a similar mission, but who needed the help of a more experienced leader to get the job done right.

As I said, cute, but I’m not buying.

There was a scene I liked because it departed from the film’s otherwise jokey tone. Once at the White House, a career secret service officer, Agent Collins, confronts Elvis and his two companions, politely ordering them to turn over their firearms. They do, and it’s a mini-arsenal. They also have to open Elvis’ gift, which is – naturally – a prize pistol, with special bullets. The gun is allowed in, but not the bullets.

What I liked was the demeanor of this official. As played by Jeff Caperton, he was calm, knew his place. Office politics was brush-off lint, and beneath him. In a film so cynically fixated on public policy as motivated by grandiose delusion and opportunism, this was reassuring. If this character was based on a real person, good for us. We should always have a few guys like him around.

 

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