There's nothing terrible about Confirmation. The acting is decent, with persuasive performances. It puts out the basic facts, shows the Republican street-fight tactics that included a threat to introduce nonsensical, sleazy testimony from some Hill students, and portrays the Democrats as outgunned and, as is often the case, unwilling to pull out their own knife even after the Republicans draw blood.The problem is, it's all pretty boring. To some extent, that may be the result of the source material; neither Thomas nor Hill is a dynamic personality, and you're essentially faced with a he-said- she-said between two staid Republican lawyers.At the same time, the movie seems desperate to keep things dry and serious. Alan Simpson says some nutty things, but the actor says them as blandly as possible. Kinnear does a good job of imitating Biden, except his performance tosses out Biden's low-key humor in favor of midwestern blandness.Basically, any place where the movie has a choice between making things more dynamic or less dynamic, it chooses less dynamic, resulting in something that's actually sometimes less dramatic than watching the original hearings on youtube.Confirmation seems built for the classroom, where students can watch and discuss it. If you want to learn a little history, I'd say this is a palatable choice, but if you want to watch something enjoyable, give this a pass.

In 1991 President G. H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, an African-American, for a position on the Supreme Court. A young law professor who had worked with him, Anita Hill, testified in an investigation that he had sexually harassed her. The allegations most remember are probably Thomas' asking bout a pubic hair on his can of Pepsi and he referring to a character named Long Dong Silver that he'd seen in a porn movie. Legal entanglements abounded, dominated by public relations. Thomas was confirmed.The movie clearly takes the part of Anita Hill without storming the ramparts. She's shown as a quiet professor at the University of Oklahoma who was contacted by the press in a routine inquiry about Thomas' nomination. She told the reporter of her experiences after a promise that her name would never become public. The reporter made the entire incident public and the result was an investigation in which Thomas angrily declared that what was going on was nothing more than a "high tech lynching." At the time, it sounded plausible enough to me, but I thought, well, so what? I was more interested in his politics than his putting moves on some woman in the work place.His politics and his performance as a judge didn't measure up. The American Bar Association denied him its highest ranking of "well qualified." Thomas claimed that he'd never had a conversation or given any thought to the controversial Roe vs. Wade decision. And since his appointment he's been invariably conservative and since 1998 has asked only one question from the bench. He's probably the least of our nine -- or rather eight -- Supreme Court Justices.Yet he was confirmed by a narrow margin with bi-partisan votes. I was curious about the Dems who voted in his favor. Here are the states those Dems represented: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Virginia.It's too bad the movie makes such a pitiable suffering victim out of Anita Hill, although that's what she was. An attractive and intelligent black woman (Yale Law School) who may well have been subject to unwelcome and vulgar comments from her boss.Still, she's certainly not Mother Theresa or Roma Downey. In the film she comes across as a stereotype, the harassed, betrayed, victimized woman. And the actress, Kerry Washington, is believable but no more than that. She has little range. She's not particularly INTERESTING and when she shouts something in anger it sounds acted.As Clarence Thomas, Wendell Pierce is rather a blank coin. He denies everything. He's indignant. But he's even more of a cardboard cutout than Hill's character. His white wife, Alison Wright, stands staunchly by his side, showing no more animation than a figure in the President's Hall at Disney World.The only casting choice that stands out is that of the usually forgettable Greg Kinnear, who is Joe Biden, chairman of the committee. He looks a little like the younger Biden but his voice -- deliberately or not -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Biden's.Hill may be shown as put upon and Thomas as virtuous but if there is a man who clearly makes misjudgments, it's Joe Biden, who shuts down the inquiry before the witnesses have a chance to speak, and who does so because he's brow beaten into compliance by angry peers who want the whole blasted thing to disappear from the media because it's giving the Senate a bad rep.On the whole it's inoffensive and a little bland. I guess that's better than white hot agitprop.

The movie did a fine job of condensing the confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court, and Anita Hill's accusations that Thomas had sexually harassed her on numerous occasions and was morally unfit to become a justice. Various issues are explored, including sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual harassment by an African American in the workplace, and sexual harassment by an African American male directed toward an African American female in the workplace. If there is a villain in the piece, it is neither Anita Hill nor Clarence Thomas (beautifully portrayed by Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce respectively), but the Democratic chairman, Joe Biden (Greg Kinnear), of the Senate committee debating Thomas's qualifications. From start to finish Biden is presented as a wuss, easily swayed and manipulated by Republicans to present Thomas in the best possible light. Along the way, Biden also loses witnesses to affirm Clarence Thomas's alleged behavior toward Anita and other women. The movie confronts the cowardliness of liberal white men (all the Democrats on the committee) dealing with sexual harassment charges that concern a black man, with the possible exception of the late-blooming Edward Kennedy who finally comes to Anita Hill's defense. For the most part, Republicans have a field day in attempting to destroy Anita Hill's reputation with bogus charges while Democrats remain mute. Greg Kinnear is completely credible as Biden as is Treat Williams as Ted Kennedy. The movie stresses how this confirmation hearing resulted in the country's growing sensitivity to sexual harassment. But it also shows how Joe Biden's ineptness results not only in Clarence Thomas's confirmation, but a generation of conservative opinions from the Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas lied his way onto the Supreme Court playing the victim of one of the women he harassed sexually. Several nauseating moments became forever etched into the culture as a result. He liked to talk about perverted sexual acts with the women who worked for him, ironically, at the EEOC. He discussed the size of his penis, pubic hairs on a coke can (presumably that was a sexy thing for him,) threesomes and his sexual prowess. As an associate justice, he has been more wallpaper than brilliant jurist, but he has done everything the right wing asked of him. Even though he benefited greatly from Affirmative Action, he was been opposed to any law which would benefit his fellow Afro-Americans. He occupies the furthest right-wing territory of the court, agreeing with his virtual twin, the recently-deceased Antonin Scalia, on virtually every decision. He has refused to speak at oral argument for many years, appearing to sulk or sometimes sleep. The nation was anything but asleep during his confirmation hearing. The spectacle of his nomination took over the nation over a long weekend in 1991. Anita Hill, a law professor from Oklahoma, was asked by investigators if there would be any reason why Thomas should not be considered qualified for the job of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. She reluctantly told the investigator of various episodes of sexual harassment, of inappropriate workplace comments and his obsession with pornographic material. Other women reported the same kind of comments from Thomas, and the video store had records of Thomas' rental history which corroborated the claim that he was an avid consumer of X-rated videos. Also, friends of Anita Hill remembered her complaints about Thomas' behavior. That information was kept from the committee and the public.At that time, there were many qualified candidates who did not carry such disgusting baggage, but President Bush wanted to force Thomas onto the court. A smear campaign began at the highest levels of government intended to discredit Ms. Hill. The campaign was effective enough so that the American public called it a draw, and in the end, Thomas squeaked by with 52 votes in favor of his confirmation. In the intervening years, the slime that got Thomas his government position has remained with him and taints the highest court. In recent years, his wife's political activities and her conservative causes suggest that Thomas should have recused himself in a number of important cases where his family obtained economic benefits. For example, during the confirmation process, Citizens United contributed to him, and yet, he voted on the recent decision involving that organization. His inability to understand what amounts to a conflict of interest would seem to disqualify him to sit on the highest court.His wife's political activities have raised vast sums which have benefited the Thomas family. Thomas did not report any of that income for several years, even though it was mandatory. When caught, Thomas excused himself by saying he didn't understand the reporting form. Not smart enough to obey the law should not be an excuse for an associate justice.Senator Joe Biden embarrassed himself when he ran the hearing which would decide who was telling the truth, but the most despicable conduct belonged to Sen. Orin Hatch of Utah and Sen. John Danforth. This movie does a good job of covering an ugly moment in Supreme Court history.