Man of the Year (October 12/06)

Though it features a premise that's both timely and promising - a Jon Stewart-esque talk show host runs for President and wins - Man of the Year remains virtually intolerable throughout its overlong running time due primarily to star Robin Williams' relentless mugging and writer/director Barry Levinson's inordinately mediocre screenplay. Levinson's decision to essentially transform the film into a conspiracy thriller in its third act is baffling, and the entire production likewise has an unmistakable vibe of pointlessness about it.

Williams stars as Tom Dobbs, the aforementioned talk-show host who decides - on the advice of an inquisitive audience member - to run for President. Tom's eventual victory doesn't come as much of a surprise - that much was revealed in the film's trailer - but nobody could have anticipated the degree to which Levinson emphasizes a silly subplot revolving around the faulty voting technology that erroneously puts Tom in office.

Initially, however, Man of the Year's problems are primarily limited to Williams' free-wheeling, obviously improvised ramblings. Williams' incredibly specific sense of humor is on full display here, to such an extent that it often feels as though he's just playing himself (worse yet, such sequences temporarily transform the proceedings into a filmed concert for Williams' thoroughly unfunny act). It consequently becomes exceedingly difficult to actually care about any of this, and one can't help but wonder if the final product even remotely resembles Levinson's initial vision (it just can't, right?)

The almost total lack of satirical elements within Levinson's script certainly doesn't help matters, as the filmmaker barely scratches the surface of the movie's admittedly topical subject matter (that Tom Dobbs is a political comedian turns out to be completely irrelevant). Levinson ultimately reveals himself to be far more concerned with the film's ludicrous and distinctly incongruous thriller elements, which conceivably could've worked in a different movie but simply come off as ill-advised here.

And that's the bottom line, really; Man of the Year's disastrously uneven vibe prevents it from becoming the compelling, searing piece of work Levinson surely intended it to be.

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