[Warning: This review contains one minor instance of profanity—which is nothing compared to the film itself.]
If you’ve seen a commercial or preview for The Campaign, you know exactly what you’ll get for passing your money to the ticket-taker: Will Ferrell’s earnest ridiculousness. Zach Galifianakis with a stick up his ass. And the story of a congressional campaign too broadly silly to be satire.
The only surprise comes in the fact that, for once, a film like this isn’t funnier in its 30-second TV spot than it is in full. It’s not great art, but it’s damn funny in a few places.
Will Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a cruise-control North Carolina congressperson who womanizes like Bill Clinton (but with unapologetic gusto) but aspires only for the vice-presidency. But his plans to run unopposed for a third term are spoiled when Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) enters the race after being hand-picked by his power-hungry father (Brian Cox) and a power of corrupt, corporate kingmakers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd).[1]
What ensues is a no-holds-barred campaign, which screenwriters Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell broadly skewer various tendencies of America politics—in particular, the empty phrase-mongering of candidates, the mindless fickleness of the electorate.
None of that is worth more than a chuckle. Hey, Beavis, Americans voters are dumb, heh-heh. But two elements in the film play for huge laughs. One is Ferrell, who just kills in a few scenes by being so earnest—and, in a certain sense, subtle—in his ridiculousness that you have to go with it. I’m not knocked out by what Ferrell does, but it’s hard not to see that he’s gotten very good at it.
The other element is how the filmmakers have incorporated kids in ways similar in spirit to some stuff Ferrell has done online in recent years. Whether it’s in how our expectations are violated (a shot of a little girl listening to a particular rap song in headphones is a scream), or in how kids’ confessions keep going down a pretty twisted road, for about five straight minutes you’re watching great comedy, silly but hilarious for it.
For whatever reason, Henchy and Harwell are particularly funny here when the topic is sex. A campaign ad about Brady’s philandering is funny enough even before we find out it’s not an opposition spot. And with the way Ferrell plays it, you’ll be glad you’re seated with other filmgoers, because it’s fun to get caught up in one of those moments where you’re all still laughing into the next scene.
Almost all of the high points come during the film’s first two-thirds, and since the story isn’t substantial enough to hold interest, you’ll feel your comedic charge flagging as the race winds toward its meh conclusion. But 85 minutes ago you’d had a few fewer huge laughs in your life than you’ve had now, and so you won’t leave the theater feeling it was money ill-spent.
The Art Theatre of Long Beach is located at 2025 E. 4th Street, LB 90804. For more info call (562) 438-5435 or visit arttheatrelongbeach.com.
[1] It’s a quiet treat to find quality actors—particularly Cox and Lithgow—in small parts like these. I immediately recognized Cox from his excellent performance in my Netflix film at home right now: Ralph Finnes’s version of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, which also happens to be about the political mindlessness of the hoi polloi. (P.S. The best production Shakespeare I have ever seen.)