DVD Review: Man of the Year

Robin Williams stars as an accidental president-elect. The film is good one, but suffers a bit towards the end when it can’t decide if it’s a comedy or a thriller. Man of the Year is a good movie, but you should be aware that it’s not the rollicking comedy or comedic political satire that the trailer makes it look like.

Man of the Year is a good movie, but you should be aware that it’s not the rollicking comedy or comedic political satire that the trailer makes it look like. Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) is the host of a political comedy show. One day while he’s warming up the crowd one of them asks him if he would run for president. His manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken) thinks of the publicity, but Tom actually thinks that he can discuss the issues and make a difference. Much to his manager and his head writer Eddie Langston’s (Lewis Black) chagrin he actually hits the campaign trail to give issues speeches, in other words not funny.

Why not him for president?

Tom is put on the ballot in 13 states and even is allowed to participate in the major debate of the election against the incumbent Democrat candidate and Republican challenger. He scores points in the debate when he turns it more towards his comedy show performances and puts a humorous spin on the issues. Meanwhile, the Delacroy Corporation has been awarded the exclusive contract to supply an electronic voting system to be used in the election. Programmer Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) has found a bug in the system and warns her boss and his lawyer (Jeff Goldblum) about the potential damage. They only see the financial horrors for the company if they have to try and fix the bug this late in the game, so they let the system be used in the election. Dobbs wins by a landslide, but Eleanor knows that he only won because of a glitch. She gets fired and framed but tries to let Dobbs know that he’s the president-elect only by computer bug not popular vote. Will she be able to tell him since she sees that he really is a good man and will Dobbs be affected by the truth or be the president anyway?Robin Williams and Barry Levinson have collaborated before on the film Toys. This film reminds me of the tone of that previous collaboration. Those expecting a comedy might be disappointed. Yes, there is lots of comedy since Williams gets to perform as we would expect him to do (though with politics as his subject matter), however, towards the end of the film it takes a swerve into thriller territory. The trailer made it look like it was your typical Robin Williams comedy so this swerve caught me off guard. It could’ve been a funny political fable, but this turn makes it feel somewhat schizophrenic. I felt that Toys was the same way (marketed as a comedy, but has a bit of darkness to it).

Williams and Black are funny, but not as funny as they should be.

Now don’t get me wrong, I happen to like both Toys and Man of the Year but this combination of genres might have an effect of your enjoyment of the film. It just seems like two movies joined together at the middle. Williams is hilarious as usual and it’s always delightful to see Christopher Walken. Lewis Black doesn’t have too much to do, but does have some funny bits when he’s on the stage. Laura Linney performs well, but again her portion of the film feels like the Parallax View instead of a comedy. Man of the Year is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features include 2 featurettes. The first is “Commander and Chief: The Making of Man of the Year and runs 12 minutes. It has interviews with Laura Linney, Christopher Walken, Robin Williams, writer/director Barry Levinson, Lewis Black, and Jeff Goldblum. The second is the 9 minute “Robin Williams: a “stand up” guy” where the cast talks about working with that loveable madman. Man of the Year is a good movie, but you should be aware that it’s not the rollicking comedy or comedic political satire that the trailer makes it look like. Good cast and performances all around though, just be prepared for the swerve into thriller territory.