The car-crash mayoral candidacy of New York politician Anthony Weiner makes horribly compulsive viewing in this documentary, with whose directors he evidently agreed up-close-and-personal access before his glorious comeback narrative got derailed mid-filming and his political career went into the toilet afresh.
Weiner is the blowhard and motormouth who quit Congress in 2011 after he was found to have texted and tweeted lewd photos of himself to women. His surname was comedy gold for talk-show hosts. But two years later he revealed he was running for New York mayor, and that his wife was standing by him: the elegant and cerebral Huma Abedin, a long-term aide to Hillary Clinton. All looked good for the repentant Weiner until more sexting emerged, midway through the campaign. The documentary allows you to suspect poor Huma – frequently shown worryingly silent and thoughtful – might have had a secret plan to re-enact Hillary’s stand-by-your-man approach prior to a political run of her own. As for Weiner, he is quite unable to answer a straight question, usually claiming to have already answered it in some previous speech or interview. “You don’t have to answer now,” says his press assistant, gently; Weiner replies indignantly: “I’m giving you the answer at this moment! I’m talking words!”
Poor Weiner: addicted to political celebrity and to the subsequent sexual opportunity. Political greatness eludes him.
