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Director: Alexander Payne Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta Starring: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik, Molly Hagan, Delaney Driscoll Running Time: 103 minutes Studio: Paramount MPAA Rating: R |
Ferris Bueller goes back to high school as a civics teacher and meets the overachieving, anti-Ferris from hell, Tracy Flick, in the quirky comedy, Election.
Matthew Broderick is Jim McAllister, an ordinary schlub who's out of his element when high school Kathie-Lee-clone Flick (Reese Witherspoon) runs for student council president. Flick is one of those super-Rushmore students: involved in everything, excelling in her studies, and willing to step on anybody to get ahead. Sun-Tzu could learn something from this kid -- when another student confesses to tearing down her opponent's campaign posters, Tracy is at first dumbfounded (for she had actually destroyed them), then immediately screeches, "You'll pay for this!" She switches gears faster than an Indy race car screaming out of the pit stop.
Her trail of twisted and destroyed souls includes math teacher David Novotny (Mark Harelik), McAllister's friend and colleague, who stupidly "crosses the line" with Tracy. As a result of his adolescent mash note, he loses his job, his wife, and his livelihood. The point? Don't mess with Flick, a warning that McAllister fails to heed. He urges sidelined football hunk, Paul Metzler (Chris Klein), to enter the election and possibly derail Flick's chances.
Better to send Sean Connery to steal the sun.
Quirky is about all Election has going for it, besides Witherspoon's spastic coffee-achiever. The script, written by director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, has no fewer than four narrators, no doubt a structure inherited from the Tom Perrotta novel. McAllister, Flick, Metzler, and his younger sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), who also enters the race, are all heard as narrators. Some of it is funny -- Tammy enters the race to get back at her brother, who "stole" her lesbian lover, Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia) -- some of it is too obvious (mostly, Flick's thoughts concerning McAllister). Despite the uneven narrative, the melange of political satire, observational humor, and absurdist Coen-Farrelly wackiness fits together nicely. A scene showing Tammy contemplating power lines contains future implications for all concerned -- the script is full on nice moments like this.
Director Payne directs the proceedings with a few jumps in perspective that jar, but not overly so. The in-your-face nuttiness (an Early Man exhibit at a museum; David describing what he likes best about Tracy; Paul's "typical afternoons" with Lisa) isn't as effective as it should be. And we get the heavy'heanded message that Jim is no better than Tracy or David long before he makes two fatal mistakes on the same day. Election needs Broderick and Witherspoon on-screen, otherwise it lacks the verve and imagination of a film like, say, Rushmore.
