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Poster art from impawards.com
Tracy (Reese Witherspoon) is an obnoxious overachiever whose hand is always straight up whenever a question is asked and gives dictionary definitions. McAllister can’t stand her, since she’s been student president for three years now, and she has no plans of not doing a fourth term. Even though she is running unopposed, she still puts up posters and buttons and cupcakes (!). So McAllister tries to sabotage her running in various ways, including sending in jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein). Of course, things don’t go as planned.
Election has many funny parts, as well as many poignant parts, also. At times it could be bittersweet, and other times it could be a little mean-spirited (but still in a comedic tone). Most of the jokes aren’t for today’s teen comedies (although this movie did come out just four years ago), since they don’t have to do with gross body functions. This is one teen comedy, however, that you’ll want to own on DVD so you can watch it over and over.
There is heavy narration (except for the middle-end), which I love, told by the four major characters: McAllister, Tracy, Paul, and Paul’s sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell), who may be a lesbian. She doesn’t think so, stating, “It's not like I'm a lesbian or anything. It's just that all the people I've been attracted to happen to be girls." This makes for an interesting subplot that gets over her head. It seems like Payne (who also directed About Schmidt) likes to intertwine his stories: McAllister’s colleague Dave Novotny (Mark Harelik) has an affair with Tracy who gets fired; McAllister wants to have an affair with Novotny’s wife Linda (Delaney Driscoll), and it goes on and on. It’s actually quite funny to see how it all turns out.
However, it can’t all be good. Klein is way too old to play a high schooler (and he looks a lot like Keanu Reeves), and Broderick is too young to be a star teacher. The script, though always biting and sarcastic, doesn’t really make us know why McAllister hates Tracy. They get us to like the characters (though all of the pratfalls McAllister befalls-it seems like Jeffrey Jones is getting back at him from Ferris Bueller), though.
Payne must have some obsession with mouths; there are many close-ups and references to mouths. And the poster has a mouth. The music is simple yet elegant (but sometimes it sounds like the music comes from TV’s Survivor). The pace is kept throughout, but gets bogged down towards the middle and lets its comedy take a breather. It does add dramatic effect, but it would have been easier to sit through if they kept the humor coming. I really had no idea what was going to happen at the end, and I was surprisingly satisfied at the conclusion, though I can understand where some people wouldn’t.
During the way of the movie, I was repeatedly reminded of Ghost World, because of its quirkiness, black humor, poignant drama, and Thora Birch decided not to take the role of Tracy (she’d also be perfect). It seems like the mocking of high school was dead on.
I though Broderick was perfect (despite his age), and Witherspoon did an excellent job. Klein was also great, and supporting characters (like Colleen Camp) were good, no matter how small the role. So, I would very highly recommend Election, no questions asked.
Rated R for strong sexuality, sex-related dialogue and language, and a scene of drug use.
Review Date: January 10, 2003