Zachary FenellMan of the Year
January 20th 2009 19:23
Man of the Year, 2006
When it comes to stand-up, I am not a Robin Williams fan. I'd heard that this movie relied on some of his routines, so I was a little resistant to see it. Ultimately, I'm really glad the hubster talked me into it.
The story goes that a political talk-show host, Tom Dobbs, gives in to peer pressure and decides to run for president as an independent. He doesn't purchase television spots but rather travels around the country in a bus doing old-fashioned stump campaigning. As adorable as that is, he doesn't make a lot of progress. Fate, however, has a different plan and he ends up winning the election due to computer error. The fantastic part comes in when he informs the public that the election result was a mistake and steps down from the position before the inauguration.
That's great, but here's why I picked this movie to review today: Dobbs campaigned on the platform of a people-based government determined to see change across the board, to buck the status quo, to operate beyond the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups. The truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense. We get this idea. We can see it, we can feel it, we are moved by it. And today, another incredibly charismatic fellow who beat incredible odds took the same office Dobbs was set up for in the real world.
Maybe this movie was prophetic, and maybe it was just inspiring. Fiction shows us images of what might be if the world was plunged into unspeakable peril, or what could happen if the public takes a chance. In the movie, even the people who didn't vote for Dobbs found themselves catching the spirit of change and the enthusiasm that is required to make that change happen, so that even when he stepped down, the re-elected president found himself in the position of having to uphold the same ideals and intentions that Dobbs had in the first place.
Sure, there are a few tired and worn-out Williams jokes, but it's easy to look past that. The romance is a little ham-handed, and the plot had a few bouts with schizophrenia. Still, the underlying message of hope, change and passion for our nation comes through as dominant, and that is something that I look forward to seeing manifesting in the real world in the same way it did here.
4 Stars
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