History Film / TheDistinguishedGentleman

* TropeBreaker: Thanks to [[IApprovedThisMessage Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002]], the entire scheme Johnson pulls to get elected would be impossible to do, as he would have to present his face.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The firm lack of IApprovedThisMessage in Johnson's campaign ads (an essential part of his scheme to get elected by making think that he's the other ''Jeff Johnson'' that recently died dates this movie.

* LittlestCancerPatient: The event that finally breaks through Johnson's JerkassFacade is when a cancer-stricken child and her mother show up in his office. It takes this for him to realize that he was elected to represent people who place their hopes and dreams in him.

* JerkassFacade: At first, Johnson treats being in Congress as a lark and happily acts like what he thinks a stereotypical Congressman should be, voting frivolously, dissing constituents, and sucking up to lobbyists. Then it starts to hit home that he's toying with real people's lives.

* DeathBySex: The real Jeff Johnson died from a heart attack while having sex with his secretary.

* VoiceChangling: Everybody in Johnson's group is skilled at this, especially Johnson himself, who is shown putting on no fewer than five different voices while campaigning for office.

* KansasCityShuffle: Johnson's specialty. Both his normal con and [[spoiler: the EngineeredPublicConfession he sets up]] are this in a nutshell. His HoneyTrap is effective enough, but then he comes in and "catches" the other two members of his group, explaining the con to his mark and letting them think that they're in control again. [[spoiler: In the confession, he causes the chairman and lobbyist to panic by claiming to have taped the whole thing, even ''bringing the camera into the room with him'', and acts defeated when they discover it's a bluff. Of course, he doesn't mention that this camera is ''rolling''...]]

* HoneyTrap: Johnson's basic scam, seen in the opening, is to bait a prominent man with illicit sex, then have the woman's "husband" or "lover" show up and blackmail him with exposure -- an old con known as the "badger game". Johnson takes it a step further by showing up in the guise of an FBI agent and arresting the "con artists". He'll hustle them right off to jail, but the mark is going to be subpoenaed as a witness. This, of course, is exactly what the mark doesn't want, so he "bribes" Johnson to keep his name out of the press.

* GreenAesop: The cancer victim's mother who accosts Johnson believes that high-voltage power lines near their neighborhood are responsible and wants him to vote for an environmental bill regulating them.

* TheCon: Johnson's basic scam, seen in the opening, is to bait a prominent man with illicit sex, then have the woman's "husband" or "lover" show up and blackmail him with exposure -- an old con known as the "badger game". Johnson takes it a step further by showing up in the guise of an FBI agent and arresting the "con artists". He'll hustle them right off to jail, but the mark is going to be subpoenaed as a witness. This, of course, is exactly what the mark doesn't want, so he "bribes" Johnson to keep his name out of the press.

* AlterKocker: Johnson claims to have learned [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage his fluent Yiddish]] from old Jewish folks on the beaches of Miami, and pretends to be such a person while campaigning in a Jewish neighborhood. In one meet-and-greet, he flatters an old Jewish lady by talking to her in her native tongue.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: In a darkly satirical take on the trope, a lobbyist helps Johnson pick his positions by telling him about the money that various interest groups will offer him for espousing them.

* LittlestCancerPatient: The event that finally breaks through Johnson's JerkassFacade is when a cancer victim shows up in his office to demand that he vote on an environmental bill. It takes this for him to realize that he was elected to represent people who place their hopes and dreams in him.