The Special Relationship premieres tonight on HBO

Already holding a winning hand with You Don’t Know Jack, Temple Grandin, and its spectacular 10-hour series The Pacific, HBO doesn’t need a draw card to dominate this year’s Emmy movie & miniseries categories. Premiering tonight at 9 ET, Peter Morgan’s The Special Relationship makes its bow just under the wire to meet the qualifying deadline, and while reviews for the movie are respectable enough it looks like the film’s best shots for nomination might be for the three lead performances — especially for Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton.

[UPDATE: Now having seen the movie, it’s hard to see how it won’t get an Emmy nomination for Best Writing for Miniseries/Movie too. Has a lot more bite and relevance than I expected. One of Peter Morgan’s very best efforts.]

Entertainment Weekly:

After tackling David Frost and soccer manager Brian Clough, the actor returns to the role he made his own in The Deal and The Queen. This time the subject is the relationship between Sheen’s Blair and Dennis Quaid’s Bill Clinton. Sheen is predictably excellent. But with Quaid and a Hillary-essaying Hope Davis firing on all thespian cylinders, he might, incredibly, be one of the lesser reasons for watching. (A-)

The New York Times:

Even with dazzling performances by Dennis Quaid as Mr. Clinton, Michael Sheen as Mr. Blair, and Hope Davis, who all but steals the film as Hillary Clinton, this reading of a chapter in history might be little more than an entertaining period piece set in a more prurient, and therefore more innocent, time — back when wars were small and easily won, and America was the unchallenged economic engine of the world. But because the story is as much about Mr. Blair as his American counterpart, “The Special Relationship” sheds light on one of the enduring puzzles of the early 21st century, namely why a gifted and ambitious European leader would risk his popularity and his legacy to support President George W. Bush in his rush to war in Iraq.

…Ms. Davis, in pantsuits, a blond pageboy and false teeth, gives as good an explanation as any. The actress channels Mrs. Clinton, radiating the former first lady‚Äôs intelligence and energy; she is uncannily persuasive portraying a wife whose loyalty is forged in mutual respect, shared ambition and a deep, simmering rage at the ‚Äúvast right-wing conspiracy‚Äù that she believes is out to destroy her and her husband.

The San Francisco Chronicle doesn’t quite buy a second-act personality transplant in Sheen’s depiction of Blair, but otherwise admires the three lead portrayals.

…if you don’t care about credibility, “The Special Relationship” is entertaining, thanks in large part to the performances. Quaid doesn’t quite have Clinton’s velvet charm down, but he gets close enough to make us believe nonetheless. Davis really nails Hillary, showing her to be a virtual co-president and, more important, getting at the strength of the bond between the Clintons that has stood the tests of time, scandal and politics. And Sheen is enjoyable to watch, even if he can’t overcome the credibility gap in Morgan’s script between the naive Blair and the calculating master politician Blair.

The Washington Post likes Sheen, loves Davis, and posts one of the few reviews that absolutely hates Quaid:

For some reason, Morgan and company feel they have one more story to tell, although “The Special Relationship” really belabors (pun intended) the point and our patience. And I can’t avoid the inevitable anymore: Dennis Quaid is truly awful in the role of President Bill Clinton, the other half of “The Special Relationship’s” special relationship. It’s so bad that I insist everyone inside the Beltway watch it at least twice.

Fortunately, in the same breath, there is some good news: Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton. Wearing a set of buckteeth and displaying a masterful command of that quintessential Hillary people repellent, Davis shows a capability that surpasses Quaid’s surprising ineptitude. This creates an eerie parallel to what the world has longed perceived as the prime dynamic in the Clintons’ marriage, as the two must act out one of the decade’s grisliest moments in public/private shame: the night Bill confesses to Hillary that he did, in fact, have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

The rage with which Davis glowers at Quaid! Is it acting, or is she really peeved at Quaid, thinking to herself, Here I am nailing the part of Hillary and you’re over there doing what — Foghorn Leghorn?

There are museum animatronics doing better presidential imitations than Quaid.

The Hollywood Reporter caps off this review roundup on a high note:

How Blair prevailed and what he took from the experience, though arguably at the heart of Morgan’s screenplay, are but a few of the insights the film offers. Morgan also lifts the veil on the impact of the Lewinsky affair on the two leaders as well as its effect on their wives, Cherie Blair (Helen McCrory) and Hillary Clinton (Hope Davis), who, by then, had developed a friendship of their own.

Any attempt to dramatize recent history is fraught with peril. Historians have not yet developed a consensus on the impact of key events. Portrayals of familiar figures must capture their essence without a slavish devotion to their every mannerism.

Director Richard Loncraine, who helmed “The Gathering Storm,” HBO’s stirring film on Winston Churchill in the years immediately preceding World War II, avoided nearly all pitfalls. With its well-chosen cast and high production values, “Relationship” is an especially thoughtful, revealing and honest account of power and politics.