Stars Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianikis, Jason Sudeikis, and Dylan McDermott; Directed by Jay Roach from a script by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell; Rated R; 85 minutes
Critic’s Grade: C+
During a political season when the Democratic candidate’s campaign ran an ad accusing his Republican opponent of causing the death of a steelworker’s wife, and a GOP hopeful’s candidacy was dashed by allegations of an extramarital affair, fiction is never going to be stranger than the truth.
One can’t say that the “The Campaign” doesn’t go ahead and try, anyway.
A raucous, crude comedy too obvious to be a satire, and too over-the-top to cause anyone to reflect seriously on the often embarrassing real-life state of politics, American style, the film instead amounts to another opportunity for funnymen Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianikis to strut their rather overexposed stuff.
The setting is small-town Hammond, N.C., where the tall, good-looking and utterly cynical Congressman Cam Brady (Ferrell) expects to cruise to an easy re-election to his fifth consecutive term in the seat. Something of a cross between John Edwards (the hair, but not the ideals) and Bill Clinton (the horndog tendencies but not the smarts or the political adroitness), Brady is equipped with experience, connections, a once useful campaign manager (Jason Sudeikis) and, not least, a slim, blonde wife and attractive kids. In his spare time, he woos women by phoning pictures of his privates (ala fallen Democratic bulldog Anthony Wiener). His all-purpose campaign slogan: “America, Jesus, Freedom.” For Ferrell, Brady is a bit of a retread, all arrogance, nuttiness, and unearned confidence, a cousin to the characters he played in “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights.”
Brady’s smooth road to victory is rerouted with the arrival of the Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), a pair of billionaires eager to back any candidate that might further their business goals; yes, it’s a reference to the likes of the Koch brothers, on the Right and, on the Left, someone like George Soros. Their choice for the man to oppose Brady is tourism-business director Marty Huggins (Galifianikis), short, round, favouring turtlenecks topped with plaid sweaters, and given to an effeminate bounce that contrasts with the testosterone-shocked swagger of Brady. As constructed by screenwriters Chris Henchy and Chris Harwell, and played by Galifianikis (“The Hangover” movies, “Due Date,” HBO series “Bored to Death”), Huggins is just a few minces shy of a gay stereotype. And his wife and kids are portrayed as yokels who may not be as innocent as they seem at first.
Huggins initially is unwilling to go negative. All of that changes with the arrival of Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), an unsavory political strategist employed by the Motches. “I’m here to make you not suck,” Wattley says, before forcing Huggins into an extreme makeover of his hair, his home, his family, and their pets – the matching Pugs are traded out for a chocolate Labrador and a Golden Retriever. Meanwhile, Brady unleashes a campaign touting himself as a “Real American Man.” From there, the battle begins in earnest, and the collateral damage extends to wives, a baby, and even Uggie, the canine star of “The Artist.”
The laughs are few, if often quite funny, and several of the funniest are attached to small roles or cameo appearances by the likes of Jack McBrayer, John Goodman, and Karen Maruyama, as an Asian domestic servant who somehow sounds just like the Hollywood version of a Southern mammy.
As political films go, “The Campaign” isn’t likely to make it into the final stretch. For something more provocative and/or darker, check out last year’s “The Ides of March,” or Oliver Stone’s deeply flawed “Nixon” or, heck, go all the way back to “All the President’s Men.” And for something funnier, there’s always “Dick,” with Dan Hedaya as Nixon and Ferrell as Bob Woodward, or “Election,” detailing a high-school political battle.