Primary Colors (1998)

Based on the novel by a former aid to Bill Clinton, Primary Colors (1998) follows a campaign operative into the slippery world of election politics. Adrian Lester stars as Henry Burton, an upstart young campaign worker who’s enlisted to aid the candidacy of the charismatic and somewhat oily Jack Stanton (John Travolta). Even after the presidential hopeful’s true colors are revealed, Burton fights like mad to help the smarmy salesman make it to the top of the electoral heap. Director Mike Nichols understands that every good candidate’s got a fatal weakness for women, which is why he enlists Maura Tierney to play a campaign-trail temptress.