It begins with a super-secret meeting in the White House less than two weeks before the presidential election. The topic of the meeting is how to deflect attention away from the incumbent’s improper behavior with a teenage girl. To diffuse the situation, political problem-solver Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) is brought in. His solution is to give the public another concern, one that will push the girl far, far back in their minds – at least until election day.

So who says war is good for nothing? Brean decides a skirmish with Albania is just the thing. But not a real war – just the appearance of a war. To meet that end, Brean, joined by presidential aide Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), flies to L.A. to recruit movie producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman). Motss agrees to produce the war and calls in his troops, Fad King (Denis Leary) for merchandising and Johnny Green (Willie Nelson) to write an anthem.

At first the scam works amazingly well, and the molested teenager is relegated to the style section of the newspaper. But various hitches arise in the form of the switching loyalties of the CIA and a war hero who is actually a psychopath.

Wag the Dog comes at a ripe time – when politicians worry that every time Winona Ryder smokes a cigarette onscreen, thousands of her fans will soon become addicted, or that the more impressionable will want to cap somebody just because Samuel L. Jackson looked cool doing it in Jackie Brown. What Wag the Dog does is give Hollywood the influence it’s been credited with for years, and then it really goes to town.

Levinson does a good job at keeping the pace crisp and building up the situation. The screenplay cowritten by David Mamet and Hilary Henkin (from a book by Larry Beinhart) is sharp and filled with one-liners and sarcastic sight gags. At one point, when Brean is asked, “Why Albania?” he answers, “Why not?” At another, a young actress (Kirsten Dunst) is asked to play an Albania peasant for “news” footage. In her arms, she carries a bag of corn chips that will later be digitally changed into a kitten. When she asks about putting the shoot on her resume, Brean tells her that she never can. When she protests, he explains that, if she does, she’ll be killed.

And while De Niro puts in his usually fine performance as the Machiavellian Brean, Wag the Dog is Hoffman’s movie. This is one of the best parts he’s had in years. He gets to play a character with true character. Fluffy-haired and fake-tanned, Motss is a producer not satisfied with the small bit of acknowledgement he receives during his movie’s credits. He constantly laments the Oscar’s lack of a category for his kind. The only thing he has is his stories. “This is nothing” is Motss’ catchphrase, and he launches into a tale of disaster involving one of his past films. As the movie progresses, he says it more and more – until the final payoff when he gets to say it after he, Brean, and Ames suffer through a plane crash.