Movie Review: Man of the Year

Man of the Year is about a TV talk-show host, Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), who decides to run as an independent candidate for president after an audience member suggests this to him. Another sub-plot develops, which involves the electronic voting system approved for the election. Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) works for the company that has the contract to develop these machines, Delacroy Systems. She realizes there is a glitch in the system just weeks away from the election. She attempts to warn the company; however, the company head and his legal advisor drug her and fire her in an attempt to keep her quiet about the problem. Dobbs hits the campaign trail with an open and no-nonsense campaign, and eventually, gains popularity and coverage after he steals the show at the presidential candidate debate. He is aided on the campaign trail by his manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken) and the head writer from his talk-show, Eddie Langston (Lewis Black). Dobbs takes the election and becomes the president elect. This is when Green goes to Washington to try to get in contact with Dobbs so that she can tell him he won through a glitch in the system. Green gets close to Dobbs, and eventually she tells him that he should not have actually won the presidential election. Delacroy releases information to the media to discredit her story, and they also send men to kill her. Eventually, Dobbs tells America the truth: that the election was a fraud, and he is stepping down to return to his show.

The strength of this movie lies in the independent perspective it takes to the American political system. The filmmakers decide not to take a strictly conservative or liberal position, and during the movie, Dobbs does not take a strong stance on any specific political issues. Instead, this movie examines the corruption and apathy that surrounds American politics today. It is refreshing to see a movie that does not hold back from attacking both sides, Republicans and Democrats. A message that Williams’ character, Dobbs, tries to get across during his campaign is just that people are sick of the options they have in politics today, and that they just want another option or something fresh. Another strength of this movie was the occasional political rant or joke by Williams, and the endearing but oddball manager played by Walken.

Unfortunately as this movie progressed, it seemed as though the filmmakers simply took on more ideas and messages than could be clearly conveyed. The idea of election fraud and malfunctioning electronic voting systems distracted and confused the audience. That sub-plot is even more unbearable, because of the character of Eleanor Green. Honestly, all I can say about Eleanor Green is just that she was too much. If they were going for a woman, who had just gone through too much and was at her wit’s end, then I think Laura Linney did an excellent job of portraying her. However, the scenes between Dobbs and Green where she was trying to reveal the truth to him were painful to watch, and I believe it detracted from both humor in the movie and any seriousness the film could contain. They went too far with the corporate corruption and one woman’s mission to reveal the truth in the sub-plot to make it very credible, and I think they lost the audience when they went off on that tangent.

Man of the Year seems like a movie that started with the best of intentions, but eventually progresses into a mess of messages about political corruption and election fraud with elements of a comedy, political thriller, and romance. It would have been best if the filmmaker could have stuck with one topic or issue and focused on that rather than throwing the whole mess at the audience to sort out. The audience is left confused with a mess of genre expectations to sort out with occasional comic relief. For those expecting a comedy, this movie delivers a few minutes interrupted by large sections of an unbelievable and confused plot. The few laughs you can get out of this movie are not worth the nearly two hour mess you have to sit through to get to them.