By Matt Soergel
Florida Times-Union

There's a lot to like about The Contender, an entertaining thriller with a twisting, cleverly built plot, smart dialogue and an insiderish, cynical view of politics.

After a fantastic opening action scene, it settles into its story about a female vice presidential candidate, nominated after the death of the sitting veep, who faces a concerted, nasty, partisan attack.

It seems she was involved in a drunken orgy back in college. There are photos. There are witnesses. And now, decades later, are her opponents going to use it to sink her nomination?

You bet they are.

The Contender coaxes some great performances out of actors who clearly relish its talky script.

Joan Allen will probably return to the Oscar ceremony for her role as Sen. Laine Hanson, who's chosen by the president to take over for the deceased vice president. She's tough and human and gives several Oscar-moment speeches as she defends her right to privacy, the right to say that whatever might have happened, it's her business -- and doesn't have anything to do with running the country.

"It is," she says forcefully, "beneath my dignity."

Jeff Bridges is the Democratic president, a pragmatic but strong-willed guy who, in his folksy way, is obsessed with being able to get any food at any time from the White House kitchen (it's a neat gimmick that gets way overused).

Gary Oldman, as an opposing Republican leader out to sink the nomination, brings some craven desperateness to the role; this is clearly one unhappy man out to make others miserable, too. But still, he could have used a bit more shading. We know he's rotten: Anyone who wears such bad ties and suit vests has to be rotten. But why?

Meanwhile, Sam Elliott, as a well-groomed, tough-talking presidential aide, is the best of a bright supporting cast.

Even with all that going for it, The Contender has a couple of problems, one of them unforgivably huge.

Writer-director Rod Lurie, a former film critic, should have been just a little more ruthless toward his project: A bit of tinkering could have made it close to great.

One fault: There are a couple of preachy speeches with swelling background music, plus some heavy-handed symbolism (Allen's noble politician goes jogging through the headstones of Arlington, not once but twice).

And late in the film there's a serious, serious misstep, a complete cop-out that just about wrecks everything that came before it. It's a cop-out that cannot be revealed here, since we don't reveal endings of movies in this space. But a cop-out it is, nonetheless.

Audiences who have been grateful for the two-plus hours of entertainment before it might be forgiving, leaving with just a vague sense of mild disappointment.

But if you've enjoyed seeing a mainstream thriller that bothers to make a substantial, passionate argument, you'll be crushed. Why make that argument -- and then just run away from it?