| Man of the Year | ||
|---|---|---|
 Directed by | Barry Levinson | |
| Produced by | James G. Robinson | |
| Written by | Barry Levinson | |
| Starring | Robin Williams Christopher Walken Laura Linney Lewis Black Jeff Goldblum Tina Fey Amy Poehler |
|
| Music by | Graeme Revell | |
| Cinematography | Dick Pope | |
| Editing by | Blair Daily Steven Weisberg |
|
| Studio | Morgan Creek Productions | |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios | |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 2006 | |
| Running time | 115 minutes | |
| Country | United States | |
| Language | English | |
| Budget | $20 million | |
| Box office | $41,237,658 | |
Man of the Year is a 2006 political dramedy film directed and written by Barry Levinson and starring Robin Williams. The film also features Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Lewis Black, and Jeff Goldblum.
In the film, Williams portrays Tom Dobbs, the host of a comedy/political talk show, based loosely on the real-life persona of Jon Stewart. With an offhand remark, he prompts 4 million people to e-mail their support; then he decides to campaign for President.
The film was released October 13, 2006 and was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Canada and parts of Washington, D.C.
The story opens with Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), a comedian and host of a satirical talk show who is able to tap into people's frustrations with the sharply divided, special interest-driven political climate. Specifically, he makes fun of the American two-party system. During his warm-up act, an audience member suggests that he run for President. At first, Dobbs laughs off the idea, but following a popular groundswell of support, later announces on the air that he will stand as a candidate. Through his efforts, he gets on the ballot in 13 states and participates in one of the national debates with the Democratic incumbent, President Kellogg, and Republican U.S. Senator Mills.
A parallel plot follows Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), who works at a voting machine company called Delacroy. According to a television commercial in the movie, the entire United States will be using Delacroy voting machines for the Presidential election. Shortly before the elections, Eleanor notices an error in the voting system, but the head of the company, James Hemmings, purposefully ignores her warnings.
Initially, Dobbs approaches the campaign seriously – perhaps too seriously, to the chagrin of his staff, especially his manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken). That turns around the night of the Presidential debates, when, fed up with the other candidates' posturing, Dobbs shifts back into comedian mode, managing to keep the audience laughing and make serious points simultaneously. From then on, he resumes his showman persona, thoroughly shaking up the political landscape. Dobbs surges in polls after the debates, but remains a distant third to Kellogg and Mills.
Election Day arrives, and polls show Dobbs at 17% with Kellogg and Mills tied in the 40s. Early returns show Kellogg beating Mills everywhere. Eleanor says that this is part of the error in the voting systems. Suddenly, Dobbs starts winning states. He soon stands at 146 electoral votes, and the media reports that if he wins the remaining states whose ballot he is on, he will become President. Soon afterwards, results show that Tom Dobbs has indeed won the Presidential race, beating out Kellogg and Mills. Dobbs is extremely shocked – like the rest of the world. While Dobbs and his crew move from shock to celebration, Eleanor remains unconvinced. She considers revealing the computer error to the public but is attacked in her home by Delacroy agents and injected with a cocktail of drugs. Upon going to work, she behaves extremely erratically and is hospitalized for drug abuse. The company uses this as a pretext to fire her. While recovering in the hospital, she realizes that very few people would believe her story but decides that if nothing else, she must tell Dobbs.
Though still suffering from the aftereffects of the drugs in her system, Eleanor eventually makes her way to Jack Menken's birthday party. There, she unconvincingly impersonates an FBI agent but manages to catch Dobbs' eye; the two dance through the evening and Dobbs gives her his telephone number. Eleanor cannot bring herself to tell Dobbs that he is not really the President-Elect. Later, Dobbs tries to get back in contact with Eleanor by calling Delacroy. This immediately raises the suspicions of Delacroy's leaders, and they redouble their efforts to silence Eleanor. Eleanor calls Dobbs, and he whisks her off to a paintball fight, followed by Thanksgiving dinner. At dinner, she finally gets him alone to tell him that the elections were a fraud, then leaves. Dobbs wrestles with the idea that he should not have been elected as President and finally decides to break Eleanor's news to the public in a major speech. However, Delacroy pre-empts his announcement with one of their own, stating that Eleanor was caught attempting to throw the election for Dobbs, but that her efforts had no impact on the polls. Eleanor becomes increasingly fearful for her safety, a feeling that is soon justified as Delacroy agents break into the hotel room where she is staying to confiscate her computer, which contained the only evidence she had.
Desperate, Eleanor first flees to a mall, where she is found by a Delacroy agent but escapes. She then drives to find a pay phone so that she can call Dobbs for help. She manages to reach him but is not able to communicate anything before the Delacroy agent's truck crashes into the phone booth on purpose; she escapes just before the collision but is injured and hospitalized a second time. Dobbs goes to the scene and, though he cannot understand what she is trying to say, is convinced that she was telling the truth about the election. During the "Weekend Update" segment of the sketch comedy TV show Saturday Night Live, he finally announces to the public that the elections were flawed and that he should not be President. Dobbs declines to accept victory in a phony election, and another election is held with Dobbs choosing not to participate. President Kellogg wins another term, though, perhaps chastened by the Dobbs phenomenon, is much more sensitive to the populace as a whole rather than the special interests, and Dobbs returns to his career as a talk show host, with Eleanor at his side as his producer and wife. The Delacroy executives are convicted of fraud. The last seconds of the film shows a mock TIME magazine cover with Dobbs chosen as Person of the Year.
Director Barry Levinson originally considered Howard Stern for the role of Tom Dobbs. However, scheduling conflicts prevented Stern from taking on the part.
The soundtrack includes:
Man of the Year received mostly negative reviews, with the critics' aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes giving a rating of 21%. It debuted at #3 at the box office its opening weekend, with a theatrical gross of $12,550,000. Most of the critics noted the abrupt change in tone from comedy to conspiracy film. Many critics rated the entire movie negatively, calling the early humor of the film uninspired and less biting than that of the real-life television comedians Dobbs was modeled after (such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert); others argued that the early political humor of the film was both funny and on-target, but argued that the change in tone to a conspiracy film damaged its effectiveness, and many criticized the love story aspect between Williams and Linney. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com wrote, "It's a comedy, a political thriller, a love story: Barry Levinson's Man of the Year tries to be all things to all people and fails on every count – a little like the generic, ineffectual politicians it's pretending to excoriate".
James Berardinelli of Reelviews.net felt it "makes telling points and has a lot to say, but it loses its voice along with its consistency around the mid-way point". Josh Larsen of the Sun Publications line of newspapers asked straight out, "What is it about Robin Williams that he often appears in these wild misfires, pictures that are so full of promise yet so disastrous in execution?" Frank Lovece of Film Journal International placed the well-regarded Levinson's challenge and failure within a larger context: "If satire is what dies on a Saturday night, then political-satire movies are what die on Fridays. Maybe we're used to the TV topicality of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Real Time with Bill Maher, whereas movies are months in the making, turning their current events into history. Yet successful satire needn't be topical – witness Network, Election, Dr. Strangelove – because some verities are timeless. Since when, after all, hasn't there been a populist saying, 'Throw the rascals out'?"
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