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Election
***1/2
Cinema
Releases - September 24, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Alexander Payne. Written by Alexander Payne and Jim
Taylor; based on the novel by Tom Perrotta. Starring Matthew Broderick, Reese
Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Delaney Driscoll, Mark Harelik,
Phil Reeves, Molly Hagan, Colleen Camp.
Once upon a time, the sounds of garden sprinklers
and ticking clocks were frequently used to open movies. That time was the
1980s, also memorable for the last official days of the Cold War, the first
female prime minister, the rise and fall of the punk and New Romantic movements,
and good-quality high-school movies.
Alexander Payne's "Election" is
a good-quality high-school movie. It happens to be set in the 1980s, but
aside from opening with sprinklers on the soundtrack, the period design is
unobtrusive, and Payne's strong directorial hand keeps the story moving without
tacky cultural references. That takes intelligence and discipline, which
is required when filming such a strongly inventive script as this
one.
The election of the title is for president of
the student council in a large Midwestern institute. Tracy Flick (Reese
Witherspoon), that one kid in every school who aces every exam with a see-through
grin the admiring teachers don't see through, seems at first to be the only
candidate, until down-to-earth history professor Jim McAllister (Matthew
Broderick) resolves to thwart her quest.
Jim is the only faculty member with alert enough
wits to despise Tracy, and urges dim but well-liked sportsman Paul (Chris
Klein) to challenge her. After Paul's rebellious sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell)
jumps on the bandwagon, there are three diverse young personalities in
competition, and involved in outside meddling, dirty campaign tricks, giant
bee-stings and lesbian double-crossing. The trio of kids, and the educator
dedicated to controlling their fates, supply the story with wild idiosyncrasies
that jump into frame when we don't even realise how much we want a weird
surprise.
Is this a straight comedy/drama, a metaphoric
political satire or a mad rush of ideas? All three, I guess, and therein
lies the fun. Payne and his editor, Kevin Tent, piece "Election" together
with spectacular energy, giving themselves the freedom to show anything,
cut to any location, switch to any tone, or say as little or as much as they
can be bothered. The experience is often oddly funny, sometimes touching
and always exhilarating.
Witherspoon, Weitz and Campbell have caricature
roles, but enthusiastically explore offbeat notes with them. Broderick outshines
them all, in the kind of performance you can predict an Oscar nomination
for -- the balance he creates between humour and pathos, and the pace at
which he falls apart, reminded me of William H. Macy in
"Fargo".
"Election" is a brimming movie, although ironically,
that holds it a step away from being totally fulfilling. It takes us so many
places that it doesn't know where to leave us, and short of a nuclear blast,
there isn't an ending that can do justice to the tempo of the rest of the
picture. Still, we have been taken to the places, and by a surprisingly
perceptive film. I doubt aspiring politicians will take this movie as a satire.
They'll probably be looking for tips.
COPYRIGHT©
1999 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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