There are troubling signs in “Man of the Year” from the get-go.
One: It’s the film that apparently drove Robin Williams into rehab.
Two: A preview for a comedy should have at least one actual joke in it.
Hollywood remakes the “common man takes the White House” movie about once very two years (see “Head of State,” “Dave”), so it’s anyone’s guess what inspired writer/director Barry Levinson to do yet another retread with “Man of the Year.”
The movie speedily narrates its way through Tom Dobbs’ (Robin Williams) transition from a fake news anchor/comic to a presidential candidate who turns serious on the campaign trail. Will he “rediscover the funny” at a crucial moment in his campaign to win the adoration of the voters? (Spoiler: Yes.)
Once Dobbs wins the election, the movie essentially takes a sharp turn into a brick wall and implodes, burning all humor in the process. Suddenly, the movie can’t decide whether it wants to be a comedy, a tense thriller about errant voting machines or a love story between Dobbs and computer techie Eleanor Green (Laura Linney).
The film’s screenplay must have been abandoned in the middle of its eighth rewrite when some executive said, “Enough already–wrap this [bleepin’] thing up for the election season or we’re killing the entire project.” Dobbs is supposed to be funny, which explains the endless shots of other characters laughing at his jokes. That’s obviously as close as Levinson can get to a laugh track without getting kicked out of the Academy.
The final insult (assuming you don’t blow a blood vessel waiting) is the last scene, which feels like a product placement for “Saturday Night Live.” This movie and “SNL” answer to the same corporate parent, and you’ll leave the movie with the unclean feeling that you’ve just been molested by a corporate executive.
Better than: “Bicentennial Man”
Worse than: “Jackass 2”
———-
MRCRANKY.COM
