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Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, an over-ambitous student with desires to be elcted to her student council. Tracy Flick is the kind of person I think we've all met before. Driven, ambitious, very bright, but at the same time she really has no discernable personality. The fact that she is driven and involved in everything is what's getting her by. She has very few friends and is, if anything, made fun of routinely.
Matthew Broderick plays her teacher. He's a very regular man, teaching a dull course, leading a fairly boring and repetetive life. When he finds tracy's ambitions threatning he sets out on destroying her.
Election is far more hilarious than most movies because of its extremely bitter nature. Many people will find the story cold and sterile but if you get past that it is a hugely entertaining film.
All the performances are first rate and if you compare it to the other "teen" comedy of the year, "American Pie" it is evident that this is light years ahead. While "American Pie" settles on cheap belly laughs and a feel good ending, "Election" opts for exactly the opposite. In fact this is really a very adult film performed by teenagers.
"Election" is a cynical, bitter, vicious movie that is also the best comedy in years.
Tracy, played in career-defining fashion by Reese Witherspoon, is a running for student-government president at Carver. She's an odd mix of youthful naivete; barely suppressed resentment at slights both real and imagined; and a pure Machiavellian drive to succeed. She's also having an affair with Jim's math-teacher best friend Dave, whose extracurricular activities get him fired early in the movie.
Concerned about the effects of Tracy's reckless ambition and bitter over his friend Dave's firing, Jim develops an unhealthy obsession with her (the scene where Tracy appears in Jim's head while he's being intimate with his wife is one of the most consistently funny in movie history). Determined to halt Tracy's rise, Jim decides to recruit popular ex-jock Paul Metzler to oppose her in the election. Paul, brilliantly portrayed by Chris Klein, is everything Tracy isn't: innocent, wide-eyed, naive, and slow-witted, with a penchant for vacant stares and extremely stupid comments. Paul's lesbian sister Tammy also decides to enter the race, bitter over her brother's theft of a girl's affections.
What follows is one of the most brilliantly satirical movies I've had the pleasure of seeing. Although the central event of "Election" may be a high-school election, it might as well be a presidential race.
... Read more ›Reese Witherspoon is a revelation as Tracey Flick, the perfect student running unopposed for student council president. What could have been such a one-dimensional character is given a great deal of depth through her performance. And it is nice to see Matthew Broderick playing a grown-up, albeit a disturbingly immature one. The supporting players are just as amazingly cast, and act their roles superbly. The details, too, of the Nebraska setting, from the meal Broderick shares with his wife, to the trips to the mall, to the basement band... this is one well-crafted movie.
I highly recommend this movie. I've passed this movie amongst friends and family quite liberally and everyone has enjoyed it enthusiastically. Of course, we all love satire, and this is one of the best to come along in a looooong time.
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