It's not surprising that politics has affected both the release of this movie and fan reviews and ratings. 61% of the ratings at this writing are either a 1 star or 10 stars. All but two of the 18 written reviews are 8, 9, or 10. One is a 1. Usually clumps like that at the extremes reflect a lot of emotion and bias. Several of the higher written reviews reflect at least some thought and explain their reasoning, but many also reflect at least some bias. I saw this movie in an early afternoon showing on the first Saturday. There could not have been more than 20 in a theatre that holds 10 times that.
This is at least partially a faith based movie since Reagan's Christian faith is expressed on several occasions and at least two prominent actors including Quaid are known for Christian roles. Reagan mentions at least once a Calling to become what he was. Nothing is mentioned, that I could tell, about Nancy's reported beliefs in things a little less orthodox.
I thought there was a underlying Message to the movie which seemed to reflect winning the war against Communism. The is emphasized by using the device of an old Soviet Cold War analyst describing how he followed Reagan's career. That this character started tracking him as early as he did allows this device to follow much of Reagan's life, but seems a little far fetched to me. I found a theme of defeating Communism to be odd given that it is still thriving in a least a couple of countries at the time of the movie's release, not to mention the political indoctrination in our schools which appears to have won over many of our younger generations. The movie holds up free speech a few times and yet an increasing number of young people favor the elimination of disinformation, not to mention a couple of European governments. I often think that Kruschev's prophecy is coming true.
By the end of the movie, Quaid's mannerisms were such that it was easy to think we were looking at Ronnie. He did a decent job of delivering several of Reagan's more famous witticisms.
I have studied a lot of history, especially American. The movie isn't terrible as a historical piece but it is a little sensationalized in the sense of making Reagan look good.
Because of the release timing, one can't help but wonder what is the desired impact on our current election. I will leave it to you to decide what was intended, but I think the results are mixed. Neither candidate reflects Reagan's values completely. There are some serious inconsistencies if one in particular is intended, but there may be at least a couple of valid comparisons.
