Amazon.com Essentials:
Matthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his
low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school
teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven
by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving
student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but
popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run
against her in the election for student-council president.
Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this
deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition,
corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene
contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture
of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth
from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a
contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent
throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their
humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of
explosions of bodily fluids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details,
Election rewards multiple viewing. --Bret Fetzer
