“Man of the Year”
Director Barry Levinson
Universal
Liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, college
students on both sides of the political arena would consider their
highest wishes answered the day “fake” newsman Jon
Stewart would be elected president of the United States and leader
of the free world. A comedian as president? It’s about time.
Unfortunately in this case of “Man of the Year,”
filmmaker and political satirist Barry Levinson (“Wag the
Dog,” “Rain Man”) takes the joke a little too
far. In a culture of hanging chads, polarized states, and
“Bush-isms,” a comedy tackling the current upside-down
nature of the American political system would be refreshing.
However, that is only the kind of movie the trailers want you to
believe “Man of the Year” is. The beginning of the film
definitely seems at least slightly intellectual while still
maintaining conventional comedy. From the outside, it has all the
makings of a comedy; the cast includes Robin Williams in a
(thankfully) slightly toned-down version of himself, comedian Lewis
Black and the always quirky Christopher Walken. It feels like a
comedy: the one-liners that president-to-be Tom Dobbs spurts out on
his television show and on the campaign trail are absolutely
hilarious. However, by the last vote, “Man of the Year”
is anything but comedy. The film is unbalanced in more ways than
one. While the obvious gambit is that a comedian makes the bold
move from news desk to campaign trail, the film spends very little
time establishing the success and background of Williams’
character before it plunges into the campaign aspect of the story.
Election day comes and goes soon after, and by the climax of the
film, the joke is already over. Dobbs is elected president and so
begins the mess. Enter Laura Linney as Silicon Valley techie
Eleanor Green. Green finds a glitch in the new computerized voting
machines to be employed for the first time during the presidential
election. The glitch becomes the obvious reason that Dobbs takes
the election, but the voting mishap scandal takes control of the
entire second half of the film. Suddenly, what seemed like a fairly
decent comedy quickly dissipates to little more than a lackluster
thriller-drama with a few gags inserted to keep the audience awake.
And in today’s ripe-for-satire political world, that’s
the last thing we need.
E-mail Stanhope at kstanhope@media.ucla.edu.