“The Front Runner”

Writer: Matt Bai (screenplay and based upon the book by) and Jason Reitman and Jay Carson (Screenplay)

Director: Jason Reitman

In “the Front Runner,” big-eyed blonde Sara Paxton plays notorious other woman Donna Rice opposite Hugh Jackman’s dynamic Sen. Gary Hart. Jason Reitman’s political drama revisits the sex scandal that scrapped the promising Democratic nominee’s second presidential run in 1988, paving the way for George H. W. Bush’s election. The Hart campaign, led by J.K. Simmons’ Bill Dixon, scrambles to do damage control in the wake of the Miami Herald’s scoop on Rice’s visit to Hart’s Georgetown townhouse. In the harrowing interrogation scene that follows, Dixon grills Rice extra crispy about an affair that may or may not have occurred — and the collateral damage is done.

Paxton: “The first time we see Donna in close-up it’s like ‘Jaws.’ The whole...