Review: Man of the Year (2006)

Man of the Year
reviewed by Sam Osborn

Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Christopher Walken
Screenplay: Barry Levinson
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (language including some crude sexual
references, drug related material, and brief violence)

Frustrating is a good word to describe Man of the Year; frustrating
because one half of this film shines. This half moves with ease and
works off the unshakable glow of Robin Williams. The other half-the
evil half, if you will-works more like an infection: relatively
harmless at first, but fatal and sort of repulsive when left untreated.
What could have been a sweetly charming comedy is left suspending all
means of reality to turn this wickedly funny political affair into a
silly farce of a thriller.

Robin Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a kind of fictional counterpart to Jon
Stewart. Like Mr. Stewart, Dobbs hosts a nightly comedy talk show that
discusses the absurd nature of current political news. In Dobbs'
world-and more than likely, in ours-more people obtain their
knowledge of current events through Dobbs' nightly sketch than from
valid news sources. He's so popular in fact, that when one member of
the audience suggests that he run for president in the upcoming
election Dobbs takes it seriously. His campaign is fostered through a
grassroots internet movement that manages to put him on thirteen of the
fifty states' ballots and into the last of three national debates
between the two party-aligned candidates.

This segment requires that, yes, we suspend some belief in
Director/Writer Barry Levinson's vision of reality. Could a talk show
host with no political background really rise to such presidential
heights? Probably not. But it's plausible enough. The true deception
comes with the ornery sub-plot that Levinson plunks down like an anchor
into this prim and simple tale. A new voting system has been
implemented into the upcoming election, created by the corporation
Delacroy. Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), an employee for Delacroy
happens to find a glitch in the voting system only weeks before the
national election. Her alarm is muffled by the legal head of the
corporation, Alan Stewart (Jeff Goldblum), and her reputation put to
tatters by a cocktail injection of illegal drugs a shadowy man sent
from Delacroy gives her. And so when Dobbs wins the presidency by way
of the glitch in the Delacroy voting system, Eleanor must evade
assassination from corporate hit men and alert Dobbs to his undeserving
position.

I think it must first be said that I'm rarely one to penalize a film
for lack of realism. In my opinion, a suspension of reality must align
with the function of the film. Spiderman, for instance, doesn't
require many laws of physics, while a film like Apollo 13 does. With
Man of the Year, I have no issue overlooking Tom Dobbs rising to
Presidential Elect, if it's a concession needed for the film to
exist. At the same time, however, I find it difficult to believe that
Ms. Green discovered the glitch in the Delacroy voting system by
inadvertently testing the program at population volumes similar to
those used during actual elections. The glitch is an alphabetical
problem: candidates with pairs of letters that appear earlier in that
alphabet will inevitably win the election (Dobbs beat Mills, for
instance). Don't you think that the American Government might have
tested this little gem of computer programming before relying on it to
monitor the nation's votes? I think so.

Should I be easier on this small puddle of disbelief? Well, I would if
the subplot seemed at all necessary; which it doesn't. The Delacroy
plot begins as an annoying thread but weaves itself into the delicate
fabric of the entire tale. Soon, instead of following Mr. Dobbs'
witty rise to power, we follow Ms. Green as she partakes in car chases,
whispered phone calls, and FBI posturing. It's not exciting, it
isn't thrilling, and it's certainly not tragic. Don't even ask if
these segments are funny. When Dobbs could be grappling with the
American political system and driving the film into a quiet and
smarmily hilarious character comedy, Director Levinson chickens out and
plays it dumb with this Delacroy farce.

It's all just very frustrating, I suppose. Christopher Walken, Lewis
Black, and Robin Williams are a comedic force. And allowing Williams to
drift off into his own stand-up material was an ingenious creative
decision. Mr. Levinson even has a convincing grasp on current politics
and manages dozens of jokes surrounding them. And so why fall back on
this Delacroy nonsense? Bah! i say. What a shame.
Rating: 2 out of 4
Sam Osborn