3 stars (out of four)
The Campaign,
directed by Jay Roach and starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, seeks to
lampoon the cruel, nasty, dirty game that is contemporary American politics.
And what better time to do so than when the country is smack in the middle of a
heated election?
The cinematic landscape of 2012 might not at first seem to
be the most conducive environment for a savvy political satire. The
must-be-as-vulgar-as-possible imperatives of today’s mainstream comedies don’t leave
much room for the more nuanced aims of satire. And yet movies like The
Campaign prove that these disparate comedic
objectives can be merged – and they don’t even need to be accused of
flip-flopping. (See also: the films of Sacha Baron Cohen and the Harold & Kumar series which are crude and
clever – in that order.)
Satirizing the politics of the present moment is also
difficult for another reason. How do you make absurd what is already
ridiculous? The Campaign is up to the
task, escalating steadily from slight exaggerations of what we see on the news
to increasingly outrageous gags. This is also where the film’s second identity
as a crude comedy comes in handy. The Campaign is able to enter decidedly R-rated territory the
likes of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, say, cannot touch even on late-night
TV.
Director Jay Roach is a good fit for the material, having
previously directed movies for HBO about two of the more surreal chapters in
recent political history – the 2000 recount and the vice presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin. He also helmed two of the bigger hits of the
late-90s/early-2000s – Austin Powers and
Meet the Parents – so he knows
how to put together a comedy. The Campaign skips along at a fast pace, never lingering too long on any one bit.
Having Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis at your disposal
certainly helps too. Mr. Ferrell plays Congressman Cam Brady, a Democrat from
North Carolina’s 14th District. Cam Brady doesn’t have much of
anything to add to political discourse but has found he can win over just about
any crowd by strategically emphasizing the words America, Jesus and Freedom.
Also by showing off his wife, Rose (Katherine LaNasa, looking like the spitting
image of Ann Romney), who gives a supporting wave from behind the podium,
hoping to smile her way into the role of Second Lady.
Cam has grown accustomed to running unopposed and even the
worst PR incident – a lewd message meant for his mistress but left on a quaint
Southern family’s answering machine is only the most recent – seems unlikely to
jeopardize a fifth term for him.
That is, until the Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John
Lithgow) decide to intervene. The billionaire brothers need a man on Capitol
Hill who will support their latest collaboration with a Chinese manufacturer
(they want to build a sweat shop in North Carolina). They decide to fund a PAC
that will support Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), the son of their business
partner, Raymond (Brian Cox), in a ploy to buy a candidate who will endorse
their scheme. Marty, a pudgy oddball with a squeak of a voice, runs the small
town of Hammond’s tourism office. He has never thought of himself as a
politician but has always hoped his father might one day ask him to run for
office.
We know from last year’s The Ides of March that behind every candidate is a campaign advisor
pulling the strings. Tim Wattley (a straight-faced and hilarious Dylan
McDermott) is called in to work on the Huggins campaign and retool Marty’s
public image. (He swaps Marty’s beloved pugs for Labrador retrievers and packs
the Huggins household with hunting gear.) Marty’s sweetheart of a wife, Mitzi
(Sarah Baker), feels her husband has changed in the name of political ambition
but it’s not long before she gets caught up in the campaign as well, and in an
especially embarrassing way. Meanwhile, at Camp Brady, Cam’s advisor, Mitch
Wilson (Jason Sudeikis playing straight man to Mr. Ferrell), struggles to keep
his candidate from imploding.
The satire in The Campaign is blunt and often obvious but subtlety probably isn’t the best
approach when your leads are Mr. Ferrell and Mr. Galifianakis. Whenever the
script, written by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell, loses steam, the two actors
pick up the slack with energetic performances. They play off one another well.
(For those who are looking for a subtler jab at politics, I highly recommend
the 2009 British comedy In the Loop.)
The Campaign has the
hastily made feel of a movie that was produced quickly in order to hit on a
topical subject matter while it’s still relevant. This is also to say that it
has a loose and eager-to-please style that doesn’t worry whether or not every
joke sticks. The script could be tighter in places and the ending in particular
goes out with a whimper but these shortcomings aren’t too detrimental.
I mentioned The Ides of March earlier and the more I think about it, the more I’m amused at how much
the two movies have in common (they follow similar story beats and set their
sights on basically the same targets). For my money, The Campaign does a better job exposing the hypocrisies of
political campaigns and takes the more appropriate approach to the subject.
With things the way they are, maybe a handful of goofy jokes are the only
proper response.
- Steve Avigliano, 8/13/12
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