Man of the Year (Widescreen Edition)

 

 

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While watching "Man of the Year" I realized that I want to believe that a comedian could indeed be elected President of the United States. This stems from my long held conviction that if I could just be included in a presidential debate I would get elected because I would make the other candidates eat their works (the best realization of my peculiar daydream would be what Jed Bartlet did to his opponent in just such a debate on "The West Wing"). All John Kerry had to do was say to President Bush "I voted for it before I voted against it because we all believed what you said about weapons of mass destruction and I did what any American does when they find they were suckered on a deal." But if Kerry could not figure out a response to the often-repeated jib that fatally punctured his campaign, then he did not deserve to be president. Of course comedians have an advantage over politicians in such exchanges, because comedians know how to go cut to the truth of the matter and politicians are trained to go for the lowest common denominator and in the real world punch lines beat sound bites.

You could never tell from the trailer for "Man of the Year," but this 2006 film from writer-director Barry Levinson ("Wag the Dog") is a lot more serious. The scene were independent candidate Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) goes off on the Democratic and Republican nominees during the debates seems to be the key to his road to the White House, but the secret of his success lies in the computer voting system developed by the Delacroy Systems (in response to the hanging chads of Florida). However one of the computer experts at Delacroy, Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), discovers there is something wrong with the program. She tells the CEO but he ignores her warning because it would destroy his company, and when Dobbs wins the election, Eleanor thinks something should be done. So does her boss and his right-hand man (Jeff Goldblum), which is where we suddenly find there is a dark side to this supposed comedy.

Consequently, "Man of the Year" is put in the position of an awkward balancing act between the funny stuff and the serious side of what is happening. Dobbs is a political comedian on television in the mold of Jon Stewart, and despite his ability to rife on the foibles of politicians he has a serious understanding of the nation's political problems. In fact, he gets to be in the final debate because he has been seriously discussing the issues and is in double figures in the polls. Williams strength here is that he carries off the serious stuff as well as the comic rants, especially in his interactions with Linney. Dobbs knows better than to pay attention to what people say and a lot of contrivances associated with such plotlines are avoided because he is able to relate to Eleanor as a human being and not a character in a bizarre political plot. Christopher Walken plays Dobbs' manager, Jack Menken, who sets the stage for the proceedings with his narration explaining the cosmic alignment of events with his personal touch of surrealism, but the performance I really want to highlight is that of Lewis Black as Eddie Langston, who finally tones down an onscreen performance so that he comes across as a sage rather than a crackpot.

What tips this film off balance is when Eleanor uncovers the glitch in the program. Granted, you want something that most people can easily understand to explain how the program made Dobbs president, but you do not want something that is stupid. After you find out the glitch (and ignore the rest of this paragraph if you have not) think about what would have happened in this election: Only two of the three candidates would have won any states. Additionally, I do not understand why spelling counts in counting ballots (and also it was a good thing Hank Aaron was not on the ballot). Beyond that when the national press discovers that according to the exit polls the vast majority of people who voted for the President-Elect apparently lied about it and that the candidates always finished in the same order, they should have figured something was amiss. Do not even get me started on how Delacroy's public statements would blow up in their faces, but that is just another nail in the coffin of this film.

The net result is that ultimately the funny sides and the serious sides of "Man of the Year" do not jell. Even though Williams and Linney make their characters believable the situation quickly goes beyond their grasp. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that Dobbs would have dialed back the comedy after election day, to wit, more like what he did in his responses to the press when they went after his past than the whole bit with the powdered wig. The key difference is having a point to the comedy that critiques politics and not merely to make jokes about politics. This brings me back to the beginning and my desire to believe that not only could somebody like Tom Dobbs be elected President of the United States, but that it would be a good thing and not a bad thing (and not be default). Unfortunately, "Man of the Year" does not share that conviction regarding its own title character.

this is a great movie and the acting is superb..the humour is great and robin takes this film and makes it his style...loved it

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