by JustSkipIt » Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:24 pm
Excuse the double post...
Title - Man of the Year
Release Year - 2006
Director - Barry Levinson
Actor(s) - Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum
Genre(s) - Dramedy? Satire? Hard to tell.
Rating 2/5 stars
We went to see this movie yesterday and I was sorely disappointed. The trailers made it look like a very off-the wall political comedy with Robin Williams and I was expecting some real political satire and Robin Williams doing what he does best: being a little crazy and very pointed. I think the main problem with this movie was that it didn’t seem to know where it was going or what it was doing.
[spoiler]The movie uses a frame story narrated by Christopher Walken who is in a wheelchair. Now I’m not a big fan on the frame story (although ironically I’m writing one currently—irony’s ironic that way) and this one makes me less of a frame story fan. To me the problem with frame stories is that the frame needs to add something to the story itself and this doesn’t. Add that to the fact that the frame is offered by Walken who I find creepy (not intentionally—he’s just creepy) and it’s unnecessary.
The story revolves around one Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) who is a political news-comedian or whatever we call them. One day in the warm-up for his show he is asked about running for president. A few days later he declares that he’s running. So you would think that he’s really going to skewer the current process right? Wrong. He kind of bores his audiences to the dismay of his studio production team which has become his political team with no formal transition. Regardless: his numbers rise and he gets on the ballot in 13 states.
In the meantime, Laura Linney works for a computer voting company which has the monopoly for doing ALL elections in America. She finds a “glitch” in the software and reports it to the CEO who tells her that the problem is solved and blows her off. Not so. I will say that throughout the movie, Linney does what she does best—looking harried and a little crazy and saying “what” a lot while kind of waving her hands in front of her.
At the final presidential debate, Dobbs finally gets crazy and gets lots of attention and goes all out for a few days really skewering the competition (while Walken has a heart-attack and spends the rest of the time in bed being inspirational). Election day comes and Dobbs wins! Yay except Linney notes that the computer is still messed up so she does what anyone would do (after being drugged and sent to the hospital). She drives across country and hits on Dobbs and tells him about it. He of course believes her and falls in love with her even though everyone says she’s a drugged out psycho.
In the end, he tells everyone. Goldblum (the voting company’s legal counsel) and the CEO go to jail, Dobbs goes back to TV, and Dobbs & Linney get married. [/spoiler]
The movie is not what anyone who sees the trailer would expect. Williams is far from himself. He’s surprisingly tame and the jokes he delivers are mostly stolen from other comedians. Walken is completely unnecessary, especially since Goldblum is way creepier and scarier than Walken here, and the supporting cast is completely forgettable. Linney … well she rocks because she’s just that rocking. But the director really missed some opportunities here. He doesn’t really hit the absurdity of the political situation. He kind of mentions that health care sucks and education sucks and lobbyists own the politicians but it’s kind of like “but it’s ok.” He mentions hanging chads and voter fraud and Governor Bush but is kind of “but it’s ok.” And the “conspiracy” isn’t so much about politics as monetary gain. The CEO didn’t do it for intentional fraud; he was just selfish and didn’t get it fixed in time. It was random.
