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| Election
Year: 1999
Classification: Themenwelten - Highlights unter 15 EUR - Komödie & Drama
Directed:
- Alexander Payne
Actors/Actresses:
- Matthew Broderick
- Reese Witherspoon
- Colleen Camp
Well-Framed Fearful Symmetry
Wow, is this a great movie or what?!? Reese Witherspoon gives a fantastic barrage of hilariousness, in the ongoing bare-knuckle brawl between herself and Kirsten Dunst to see who is the most gifted young comedienne in America. Matthew Broderick was a great choice to play her nemesis (actually they are each others' nemeses, but that's another story), and he has several moments when he gets to echo, and to parody, his earlier Ferris Bueller spin on high school. The supporting actors are all perfect too, especially Chris Klein and Jessica Campbell as the siblings who get pulled into the struggle between Matthew ("Mr. McAllister") and Reese ("Tracy Flick").
Tracy Flick is running for the presidency of the George Washington Carver High School student government. The social commentary, if you're an alert viewer, has already begun -- Carver was a famous African American inventor, but if you scan the crowds in the halls of this school, there isn't a single African American kid to be seen throughout the whole movie. I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to mean, except possibly that even an election can only pretend to fairness within the restrictions of its constituency, and if you live in a lily-white suburb, you've already attempted to disassociate yourself from a huge segment of America.
Anyway, Tracy is running with the hilarious slogan "Pick Flick," which calls to mind one of my personal all-time favorite nose-related hobbies. She is sort of a robotic, albeit intense, figure, programmed to work, and to succeed at all costs, by her hyper-driven mother. Clearly, if Tracy Flick is ever going to mellow out, that moment lies decades in the future.
Mr. McAllister has mixed feelings about Tracy, because she had been in a torrid romance with a friend of his on the faculty, which ended up being discovered, and of course with the friend being fired. Beyond that -- Tracy just gives Mr. McAllister the willies. She's just so driven, so focused, so perfectly programmed to steamroll over anyone in her way... He can't bring himself to like her, and this leads him to draw Chris Klein's character, the happy-go-lucky, lovable jock Paul, into participating in the election...
The main thing a viewer should bear in mind, watching this film, is the range of situations that come up involving a moral or ethical decision. Personally, I have never once come even close to making a single moral or ethical decision in my entire life that I'm even slightly proud of, so that gave me kind of an interesting perspective on the whole process... Anyway, there are a host of situations that emerge during the movie involving ethics and morals, such as 1.)Mr. McAllister's friend (Dave Narodny)'s romance with Tracy, his student; 2.)Mr. McAllister's decision (made while watching pornography) to get in Tracy's way in the election by getting Paul involved; 3.)Paul's sister Tammy's decision to run in the election, just to drive a former friend/lover of hers up a wall; 4.)The school principal's visceral dislike of Tammy's rebellious attitude, which prompts him to suspend her from school just because he dislikes her attitude; 5.)Tracy destroying all the election posters in the halls, when she suddenly snaps under all the stress, and then trying to cover it up, even if it means trying to pin the blame on the school's potheads 6.)Mr. McAllister's own romance with his neighbor's (okay, ex-) wife, although at the same time he's trying to get his own wife pregnant; 7.)Paul and Tracy's respective decisions about whether they should vote for themselves; and 8.)Mr. McAllister's completely unforgivable choice to throw out ballot slips, to tilt the election in favor of Paul.
These decision give shape to the whole movie. It's worth watching them and mulling them over. The whole movie is just very well put together, and there seem to be a number of statements being made about karma coming full circle as well, which is why I called this review "fearful symmetry."
This movie is absolutely worth owning. Two thumbs up.
When John Hughes grows up, he'll make a film like this
Election is a film, but it feels like a parody of a sitcom. It takes a typical SITuation and follows it to its absurd conclusion.
Let me explain. Reese Witherspoon is well, let's just say, Marcia Brady on Ritalin. It's an episode about an election. If Tracy (aka Marcia) doesn't win, gosh, we just don't know what she'll do.
The election is between Tracy, the opportunistic brain, and a dumb, naive, popular, but really sweet jock (not your stereotypical bully type, like, say Jay Mohr in high school or anything). Then there's the third candidate, but I won't give that away.
Will the brain beat the brawn? Hmm.
So that's the surface layer. Definitely Brady Bunch material, right? But add Matthew Broderick as the "protagonist", a teacher who's sleazy, jealous and spiteful. Throw in a killer bee, a jezebel neighbor, and a jilted teenage lesbian. Also add real human emotions, not caricatures, where the viewer at times can't say "he's bad" or "she's good". They're all human. Some are just more inhumane.
The movie explores motivation, winning, the political process, and human tragedy. But boy is it funny! See it, I mean it. It was perhaps my favorite of 1999.
A new classic...
Election is truly one of the most clever and probably the funniest movie to come along in the past couple of years. I've watched it several times, and each time I'm drawn back in, amused, dismayed and, most importantly, laughing out loud at the plot, the details and the whole package.
Reese Witherspoon is a revelation as Tracey Flick, the perfect student running unopposed for student council president. What could have been such a one-dimensional character is given a great deal of depth through her performance. And it is nice to see Matthew Broderick playing a grown-up, albeit a disturbingly immature one. The supporting players are just as amazingly cast, and act their roles superbly. The details, too, of the Nebraska setting, from the meal Broderick shares with his wife, to the trips to the mall, to the basement band... this is one well-crafted movie.
I highly recommend this movie. I've passed this movie amongst friends and family quite liberally and everyone has enjoyed it enthusiastically. Of course, we all love satire, and this is one of the best to come along in a looooong time.
Buy Election at Amazon.com
Buy posters at Allposters.com
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