  In the CBC mini-series The Summit, legendary Canadian actor Christopher Plummer plays — get this — the President of the United States. Does that seem right to you? |
When first hearing about the Canadian mini-series The Summit, we thought to ourselves, “Oh lord, not again — not another look at the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series, please!”
Hey, no one likes seeing Paul Henderson score the winning goal more than we do, but enough is enough.
Now that we mention it, The Summit actually feels like a blast from the past, too — yup, all the way back to 2007.
The four-hour mini-series — which airs in two parts, on consecutive Sundays, starting tonight on CBC — focuses on a fictional G8 summit being held in Canada. In the lead-up to the summit, a union leader from Colombia (played by Mia Maestro) and a bioterrorism expert from Canada (played by James Purefoy) must find the antidote to a biological weapon that threatens millions of lives.
Canada’s Bruce Greenwood — who has played U.S. presidents in other high-profile projects — stars as Canadian prime minister Adderly, while legendary Canadian actor Christopher Plummer stars as American president Aimes.
Christopher Plummer as the U.S. president? Isn’t that kind of like casting Paul Henderson as an American hockey hero?
Equally striking, President Aimes’ national security advisor is played by well-known Canadian actress Wendy Crewson. Rounding out the main cast are Rachelle Lefevre, Peter MacNeill, Nigel Bennett, Steven McHattie, K.C. Collins and Lisa Ray.
The oddness of Plummer and Crewson portraying stereotypical “evil Americans” aside, the main issue we have with The Summit is something over which the series itself has no control: The timing of when Canadians are getting to see it.
The Summit was filmed in late 2007, and it aired in the U.S. on the cable station ION in May 2008. As you may have noticed, the economic status of the world has changed dramatically over the past 18 months.
So The Summit is from a different era, figuratively and literally. To have a G8 summit where the bulk of the buzz is about controversial security bills and bioterrorism, rather than the meltdown of the global economy, just seems, like, soooooo 2007, as the kids would say.
Now, nobody could have foreseen capitalism getting kneed in the groin so viciously. And in this TV environment, there are a million reasons why it might take a long time for a mini-series to secure an air date. So the writers and producers of The Summit just got unlucky in those regards.
Even Plummer’s character has a throwback feel. Sure, President Aimes isn’t meant to channel any real-life prez, per se. But the fact is, Aimes is more Bush than Obama. And Bush hasn’t been president for quite some time now.
As for the mini-series itself, it’s fairly well done — well acted and well directed, that is — but the subject matter is a tad dense. Through the first half-hour we were overwhelmed by all the characters and all the continent-hopping. You have to be willing to stick with The Summit to enjoy it.
And if you do, you’ll love the final scene, when Henderson scores for Canada.
Just kiddin’, eh?
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
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