Jimmy Carter Man From Plains: Critic Reviews

Director Jonathan Demme creates a gripping meditation on the very hot-button-ness of the Israeli-Palestinian question.

Jimmy Carter isn't a real saint, but he plays one in Jimmy Carter Man From Plains.

Demme's fascinating documentary shows Carter on a US tour to promote the book. Perhaps Carter - and Demme himself - imagined this would be as trouble-free as Al Gore promoting environmentalism.

Intriguing examination of a complex and dedicated public servant.

For the uninitiated, Demme's film provides an absorbing, if largely hagiographic, portrait of a man who has redefined the idea of post-presidential retirement.

The movie's best material is archival. It looks like old home movie stuff, but you can still feel its monumentality.

A book tour isn't even a political campaign, and traveling with Jimmy Carter isn't exactly going backstage with the Rolling Stones.

Leaves too much time for Demme as he turns an interesting character study into a full-blown tribute.

The documentary proves to be an uncomfortably admiring advertisement for its subject, and a narrowly focused one at that.

The documentary does bring plenty nuance and passion to a public persona.

One reason to see this film might be to learn more about [Carter's] views on the Middle East, but a better reason might be to observe how he attends to the privilege and responsibility of doing what he believes is the right thing.

Carter comes off as compassionate and intelligent. But the complex issues brought up in his book don't get much more than a superficial debate.

The portrait of Carter has been described as hagiography, but it isn't a stretch to view his quiet integrity as saintly next to the track records of his successors.

The story that emerges, illustrated with footage from the time, delivers a surprising lesson in the importance of small details and the ultimate power of negotiation.

There isn't enough revealing material in the tedious documentary Jimmy Carter Man From Plains to sustain an 800-word magazine profile, let alone a two-hour film.

It won't utterly rewrite Carter's history, and it won't convert anybody in this divided country, but Man from Plains will remind us that principle, humility and intelligence have a place in image-is-everything American politics.

From the open-air stroll he took down Pennsylvania Ave. on his inauguration day, to the sunny-coloured cardigans he wore when addressing the nation, president James T. Carter always seemed like a guy who wanted people to remember he was one of them.

Demme subtly portrays Carter's love affair with wife Rosalynn, and succeeds where Carter's book failed -- expertly and objectively making a movie that is provocative without being divisive.

If Jimmy Carter Man From Plains sometimes feels like the portrait of a saint, it also reminds us that saints are strange and private people pursuing a personal compact with an invisible deity, in solitude and often in sadness.

He [Carter] may not have been the most dynamic or effective president in recent history but in Demme's snapshot he certainly appears to be the most decent.

Demme doesn't insert himself, there's no structured interview format, we never see him or even hear his voice. He simply, easily immerses us. It's the opposite of Fahrenheit 9/11. And that's refreshing.

Narrrowly cast documentary focuses so exclusively on a publicity tour the former president took in the closing months of 2006 that a more accurate title might be Jimmy Carter How I Sold My Book.

It's clear from the very beginning that Demme admires Carter. But the filmmaker's skepticism for authority manages to pop out occasionally.

Follows the former President in heartfelt contemplation