As Rishi Sunak welcomes cameras into the private residence above Number 10, we catch a glimpse of the man behind the title of Prime Minister. While sunny breakfast scenes aim to showcase Sunak the family man, they seem carefully curated to project a likeable image.
As interviewer Anushka Asthana gently presses him on substantive issues, his squirming discomfort betrays the heavy burden of leadership he did not expect to shoulder so soon. Interspersed campaign clips reveal more honest moments of self-doubt and frustration with his predicament. Though the documentary grants insider access, it leaves many core questions unexplored about what truly drives this accidental PM beyond personal ambition.
If the coming election brings the end many anticipate, perhaps Sunak will open up in retrospect about his ideals once freed of leadership’s constraints. For now, this film offers less illumination than one might hope into the inner world of an ostensibly decent leader in over his head.
A Striver Overcomes Adversity
In the quiet suburb of Southampton where Rishi Sunak grew up, a young boy swings his bat against a makeshift lamppost wicket, dreaming of representing England someday. Though his Indian immigrant parents struggled financially, their tireless work ethic provided the foundation for Sunak’s ambitions. We glimpse the old Sunak pharmacy where his mother handed out medicines, contrasted against Sunak’s failure as Prime Minister to resolve NHS disputes – revealing flashes of regret and shame.
Sunak candidly shares formative experiences with racist bullying, his mother even sending him to speech therapy so he could fit in better. Perhaps this childhood adversity bred in him an overachieving drive to prove himself. From attending elite Winchester College to becoming a wealthy investment banker and hedge fund manager, Sunak’s vaulting career trajectory steered him far from his parents’ humble occupation.
Now walking the refined halls of Eton colleges and posh London clubs, does Sunak feel a nagging sense of guilt over abandoning his roots? When interviewer Anushka Asthana presses him on his refusal to raise nurses’ pay, he visibly squirms – tacitly admitting his background should inform more compassionate policy. While Sunak may wish to present himself as an elevated self-made success, glaring social detachment lurks below the surface. This film stokes curiosity about tensions between Sunak’s start as the striving son of immigrants and his reinvention into a champion of the ultra wealthy.
Family First, Country Second?
Sunak clearly wishes images of domestic contentment to soften and humanize his public image. Over artfully plated pastries, he banters about cricket with his daughters, presenting a cozy facade of the hands-on family man behind the leadership title. Yet the cameo from wife Akshata Murty – merely nodding along pleasantly – underscores her strangely ancillary role for someone who knows Sunak best. Perhaps she declined greater involvement to avoid resurrecting past controversies over her tax status that intensified scorn over Sunak’s elite detachment from everyday citizens’ plight.
While Sunak castigates opponents for “virtue signaling” on urgent issues like climate change, his paternal virtue signaling via family breakfasts rings hollow given policy failures. When interviewer Anushka Asthana highlights massive NHS waiting lists on his watch, he lamely calls the lack of improvement “disappointing” as if an outside observer rather than the man in charge. Seen baking weekend breakfasts amidst nurses’ strikes over paltry wages, Sunak’s inertia over resolving these disputes smacks of misplaced priorities.
Like the art direction on his glossy kitchen tableau, Sunak seems preoccupied with projecting the image of an in-touch family leader over delivering actual leadership benefiting British families. Polished domestic settings cannot conceal messy policy shortcomings or questions about whose interests he truly serves. If Sunak loses badly come election time, he may find more success bonding with family full time rather than dividing his focus between household and country.
Finding the Man Behind the Politician
As Rishi Sunak greets ITV reporter Anushka Asthana warmly at Downing Street, their shared Indian heritage stokes expectations of illuminating cultural insights. Yet Asthana’s role proves confined to affable shadow, nodding along agreeably in campaign stops and speech rehearsals without piercing Sunak’s polished veneer. Only when she steers him to the old family pharmacy do we glimpse cracks in the facade, catching the briefest flicker of long-buried integrity as Sunak awkwardly faces reminders of youthful idealism.
In their formal sit-down exchange, however, Asthana repeatedly lets Sunak slip free when his well-rehearsed talking points grow transparently disingenuous. Allowing his sham indignance over oil drilling critics “virtue signaling” to pass without challenge does viewers a disservice. So does permitting his outrageous defense linking Rwanda deportation schemes to “playing by the rules” rather than cruelty for political gain. Following these galling distortions, we see Sunak’s expression morph from his trademark smirk to something more like a wince – perhaps less from Asthana’s phantom pressure than his own inner revulsion at what ambition has reduced him to.
While Asthana lands more emotional punches restarting old memories, she fails to channel that honesty into substantive exchange. There her soft touch rarely penetrates Sunak’s armor ofnumb discipline: even clear NHS failures elicit only robotic buck-passing about “disappointing” lack of progress from the man now in charge. For true revelation, Asthana needed a bolder prosecutorial edge to awaken Sunak’s buried conscience and highlight harsh discrepancies between his privileged ascent and millions of Britons now struggling to get by. Her reticence leaves us wondering what firmer questioning might have sparked behind that slick veneer.
A Reluctant Candidate Braces for Defeat
In allowing extensive behind-the-scenes access to Rishi Sunak’s preparations for a turbulent election cycle, this documentary captures revealing moments belying his typical slick composure. As our camera trails him through speech rehearsals and campaign stops, we glean occasional unscripted flashes of self-doubt and even despair regarding his prospects. While Sunak musters his best facsimile of hopeful resolve in front of cheering crowds, offstage his drooping shoulders and thousand-yard stares feel less like a passionate fighter than a grim prisoner acquiescing to his sentence.
When interviewer Anushka Asthana asks about dire Tory polling, Sunak affecting nonchalance as says “none of these things last forever.” But his resigned tone and wandering gaze suggest a leader already envisioning life after inevitable defeat. Sunak went from a reluctant supporter role in ousting Boris Johnson to an equally reluctant replacement, and we sense no true personal desire behind his electoral efforts beyond dutiful obligation. Other revealing moments come during speech prep bloopers, Sunak’s exaggerated exhale and eyes raised beseechingly seeming to ask his handlers “Do we really have to go through with this?”
While his campaign bus travels picturesque British countryside likely unknown to this elite leader, our camera lingers on Sunak gazing out windows with a mournful wistfulness. Perhaps he contemplates the collapse of longtime Tory dominance, or his own youthful dreams before cascading compromises brought him to this point. Given his own visible lack of hunger to lead, Sunak must grapple with how vigorously to perpetuate his party’s now flailing efforts for power. If both candidate and party seem enervated unto surrender, then perhaps a crushing loss is precisely what the doctor ordered to spur regeneration.
Getting to Know the Real Rishi
For all the vaunted inside access, this documentary often scratches the surface without truly piercing Rishi Sunak’s polished veneer to unearth the flesh-and-blood man underneath. While we relish insider scenes of his speech prep and family breakfasts, the film fails to expose his core essence and convictions. What life experiences shaped his ideological outlook? What personal ethics guide his policy decisions? What vision does he hope as his legacy as a leader? On these pivotal questions, the film barely probes below Sunak’s slick PR facade.
Fawning interviews with loyal deputies like Claire Coutinho add little, only repeating familiar compliments about Sunak’s intelligence and work ethic. The most candid moments come not from his own words but from involuntary winces when confronted with the human costs of his NHS inaction. But the film grants more running time to his daughters’ breakfast small talk than substantive policy examination.
We leave hungry for far more revelation about Sunak’s motivations. Does he secretly chafe against partisan stances at odds with his own social conscience? Is he a true believer in Conservative ideology, or simply a canny opportunist? Did ambition blind him to principles abandoned along his ascent? In negating such deeper exploration, this film misses a precious chance to document the inner workings of a complex leader on the brink of epochal change for his party’s fortunes. Even salient questions about the endemic racism facing British minorities go largely unexamined.
Perhaps after his likely electoral defeat loosens constraints on candor, a follow-up film might uncover far more. For now, this attempt feels tentative when it should have been bold, skimming the surface when it might have plunged the depths. We await a second act offering a truer glimpse within his soul.
Signs of a Leader In Over His Head
As Rishi Sunak pensively gazes out campaign bus windows, perhaps contemplating a future forever changed by this election’s likely outcome, we are left to wonder if his ascent to power proved too much too soon. Though this documentary offers earnest attempts to humanize its subject, it reveals a leader lacking the true conviction and vision that fiery trial by electoral combat tests. Sunak took the reins by default, not bold desire – and both reluctant candidate and tired party seem resigned to their fate after fleeting weeks at the summit.
Yet if Sunak remedies the film’s shortcomings with deeper retrospection in the aftermath, significant redemption remains possible. His visible discomfort when faced with policy consequences suggests dormant conscience rather than innate callousness. Walking the streets of his youth, he appears less like a craven politician than a wayward son recognizing how far he has strayed from virtuous beginnings.
If electoral rout loosens the self-censoring inhibitions of power, perhaps a second act may show us the man reunited more fully with his humanity. But on the basis of this initial glimpse behind the curtain, Sunak appears a tentative leader unequal to the erosive elements of adversity and opposition. If indeed he goes down in the coming storm, both party and country will likely benefit from renewal.
The Review
Rishi Sunak: Up Close
While this documentary grants insider access to Rishi Sunak’s rapid rise and likely fall, it often scratches without piercing the polished veneer to reveal the flesh-and-blood humanity underneath. Sunak took power more by default than bold vision, and both he and his weary party seem resigned to imminent electoral defeat. Yet glimpses of his hidden doubts and regrets suggest a dormant conscience that fuller reckoning could awakened. For now, we have humanization without revelation; the inner Sunak remains obscured behind his own constraints. If he falls as anticipated, perhaps liberation will grant a second act more fully illuminating the real Rishi.
PROS
- Provides behind-the-scenes access to Sunak's personal and political life
- Reveals his self-doubt and frustration with leadership burden
- Captures unscripted moments showing more natural side
- Interviewer Asthana elicits some thoughtful reflections
- Details his background and experiences with racism as a child
- Humanizes him as a family man and caring father
CONS
- Fails to deeply examine his core motivations and convictions
- Wasted time on predictable talking heads offering praise
- Neglects substantive policy discussions
- Overly superficial given likely end of his premiership
- Leaves many questions unanswered about "real Rishi"
- Feels like a missed opportunity without post-election hindsight
