Primary Colors

Primary Colors follows Henry Burton, an idealistic young Black man and the grandson of a civil rights leader, who is recruited to work on the presidential campaign of Jack Stanton, the charismatic Democratic governor of a southern state. Stanton's warmth draws people in, but his habit of pursuing women threatens to derail the campaign. As Henry travels with the candidate, Stanton's wife Susan and a blunt adviser, Richard Jemmons, he is drawn into the compromises and crises of a national race, including a sex scandal that forces the candidate's family and staff to close ranks around him.

The film is an adaptation of a bestselling novel, released in 1998 and directed by Mike Nichols, the fourteenth of the eighteen features he directed, arriving between The Birdcage and What Planet Are You From? Elaine May wrote the screenplay, and Nichols produced. John Travolta plays Stanton, with Emma Thompson as Susan, Billy Bob Thornton as Jemmons, Adrian Lester as Henry and Maura Tierney and Paul Guilfoyle in supporting roles. It was a large production, with a budget reported at 65 million dollars and a worldwide box office of about 52 million.

The critical response was more favourable than the audience reaction, with critics rating it 7.2 out of 10 from 79 reviews, while on TMDB it holds 6.2 out of 10 from 357 votes. On IMDb, the film's rating reflects a similarly mixed viewer response.