Tabulating the Campaign

When I saw the trailer for The Campaign, it seemed like it could be pretty funny. Will Ferrell is quite the hit-or-miss comedian for me, but he does sometimes hit. And I think Zach Galifianakis usually delivers. But with a cutthroat presidential election gearing up at the time, I just couldn't bring myself to want to pay for even more politics on a movie screen. I put the movie into my Netflix queue and waited for it to arrive months later, after the election.

It's a good thing I waited, because most of the funny parts in the movie were in that trailer. The Campaign does serve up a few good laughs here and there, but overall it comes across as a movie that was much more fun to make than it is to watch. (Literally. In the outtakes reel that started playing after the film ended, everyone was having a great time.)

Ultimately, the problem may be that the movie wasn't quite over the top enough. The "baby punching" scene teased in the trailer is pretty ridiculous (assuming you can let yourself laugh at such things), but most of the rest movie seems only barely more outrageous than the actual, real-world election cycle that gave us "legitimate rape," "binders full of women," and more.

One good thing about the movie is the acting, though it's not really the two headliners that give the best performances. Will Ferrell plays a version of the same character he's done in too many of his other movies, while Zach Galifianakis plays an effeminate weirdo that's just barely keeping on the right side of an offensive stereotype. But the supporting cast is filled with a number of great actors giving hilariously earnest and committed performances. Jason Sudeikis, Dan Aykroyd, John Lithgow, and Brian Cox all have good moments. Sarah Baker shines as Galifianakis' wife. But the true star is Dylan McDermott, who channels all of the intense sincerity of his years on the TV series The Practice, but twists it all just a half-crank to one side and becomes hilarious in the process.

Still, the movie is less than 90 minutes and yet manages to feel long. That's a rough place for any comedy to end up. I give The Campaign a C-. It's not really worth your vote.