Man of the Year

Went and saw Man of the Year, and it turns out the reviews were largely right. There's bits of a good smart comedy here, but somehow they got jumbled up in a decidedly non-taut political thriller, and overlaid with a patina of not wanting to offend anybody. So you cut from Robin Williams bravura performance at the debates to Laura Linney being given a forced drug overdose. Those scenes don't mesh well.

The movie wants to have it both ways. It suggests that Robin Williams would actually be a pretty good president; but he has to do the right thing and walk away from the office, because he wasn't actually elected. There's a few moments that suggest that as good a person Robin Williams is, he's not prepared to be President.

And the whole thing turns on a computer flaw thought up by people who clearly have spent very little time with computers.

At any rate, enjoyable enough in parts - particularly the bits with Robin Williams, Lewis Black, and Christopher Walkin. Lewis Black has a great little commentary on how Television equalizes everything - how it gives all points of view the same relevance, and by implication rendering all points of view irrelevant. That's worth the price of admission right there, practically.