The Campaign
You've heard the gags before in Will Ferrell's political comedy Discuss this article
In politics, the wisdom goes, we want a narrative – the one about the shining city on a hill or a town called Hope. In comedy, not so much. Director Jay Roach has two brilliant improvisers on hand, but The Campaign suffers from a compounded sense of fatigue, plotwise. First, you’ve seen these characters before, and better: Will Ferrell’s scruples-free North Carolina congressman is a shoutier version of his legendary take on George ‘Dubya’ Bush, and no old gag goes unhatched (schoolroom grammar errors?). Meanwhile, Zach Galifianakis is getting dangerously close to turning his twittering quasi-prig – here, an underdog contender for office – into a cliché, after two Hangover movies and Due Date.
The deeper, more discouraging problem; the time is ripe for a seriously funny Tea Party satire, and if these guys can’t do it, who can? The Will Ferrell Talladega Nights formula is beginning to seem watered down. Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out Dubai,
-
- E-mail:
-
- Print:
