Protocol

Snoozeworthy diplomatic lark in which the ditsy star's a cocktail waitress who stops a bullet meant for Middle Eastern potentate Romanus, then gets a job with the US State Department, whose scheming mandarins reckon she might be helpful in persuading the aforementioned sheikh to let the Yanks build a military base on his soil. With its innocent, smiley heroine running rings round Capitol Hill cynicism, then learning about the US Constitution for the first time, Buck Henry's screenplay borrows freely from both Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Born Yesterday, but its populist approximations carry no hint of a specifically Reagan-era political context. Instead, Goldie affirms 'government by the people, for the people' with such big-eyed sincerity you'll not know whether to laugh or throw up.