Tell me a story

What’s it about? Cam Brady (played by Will Ferrell) had it all. He was the Congressman for North Carolina, he had an easy life full of power, prestige, and money, and he had a good family that supported him. He may have been a questionable leader at best, but every term he got reelected because no one rain against him. Things were perfect. Until the Motch brothers, two enormously wealthy CEO’s (played by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), decide to give their support to a new candidate, one that could be their puppet in Congress. They find Marty Huggins (played by Zach Galifianakis), simple family man and head of the local tourism center. He enters the race looking to effect real change, thinking politics will be place of civil discourse regarding real issues. How naïve. But with the help of shady campaign manager, Tim Whattley (played by Dylan McDermott), he learns how to play dirty. Things get very ugly and very funny as Cam and Marty launch into all out political war. It’s the dirtiest campaign battle we’ve ever seen and it’ll make you laugh a lot.

What did I think about it? I had a good old time watching this movie. Will and Zach are enormously funny men. They both have such great deliveries, equally hilarious but so unique. Even if they’re not saying funny things, how they’re saying it can have me busting out with laughter. They can kill me with just a look, especially when they’re playing it dumb.

In my review for Killer Joe, I wrote that no one plays dumb like Thomas Haden Church, but this movie has me reconsidering that statement. Will Ferrell can play dumb in so many ways. Sometimes he plays it with blindingly naïve innocence, like in Casa de mi Padre.  He can give this blank, contented stare that’ll have you believing life is infinitely better when you’re stupid. Or he can do the whole man-child thing where he’s just plain dumb, like in Stepbrothers. Or he can play it like he does in this movie, where he thinks he’s smart, but he’s so obviously not, similar to Anchorman.

And Zach, well he makes dumb look so adorable. In this movie his character is rather simple, so even when people are being mean to him he doesn’t always realize it or he doesn’t know how to react to it, so he simply stares at them with this cute and confused puppy dog look on his face and waits for the unpleasant moment to pass. Yet, if you’ve seen Zach’s Between Two Ferns interview show on funnyordie.com you know it’s just as funny when he unleashes his meaner side on his interviewees. So it was really good getting to see him go dark on Will Ferrell. It made his character more interesting to see him be corrupted and kept him from being a 2-dimensional caricature.

With the upcoming election, the timing of this movie is so appropriate. Thankfully it avoids leaning to the left or right (though I’m sure you can find some parts that do if you’re inclined to look for that sort of thing.) It doesn’t make any real statements about politics or government other than to lampoon and (hopefully) exaggerate the corruption that exists in it.

So what’s the bottom line?  It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s Will and Zach doing what they do best. Thanks to them The Campaign stands above recent summer comedies like That’s My Boy and The Watch. So go see it.

The Campaign
Director: Jay Roach (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery & The Spy Who Shagged Me, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers)
Writers: Chris Henchy (Land of the Lost, The Other Guys) and Shawn Harwell (Eastbound and Down)