Election (1999)

Directed by Alexander Payne
Written by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta
Starring Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Delaney Driscoll

My Advice: Wait and Rent It.

Jim McAllister (Broderick) is your typical well-adjusted history teacher at a typical well-adjusted school.  Sure, his friend and coworker, Dave (Mark Harelik) got involved with a student (Witherspoon).  Sure, he secretly lusts after the same student.  Sure, sure.  Well, his obsessiveness over the student, named Tracy, causes him to intervene in the election for student government president, in a desperate attempt to crush the overachiever brat before she can wreak havoc on the outside world.  Got all that?

The two leads are played well enough, with Witherspoon on target as always, and Broderick doing fairly well with a few grey hairs (no doubt from his Godzilla reviews).  Well, it's an interesting enough premise and it's executed with a Rushmore Lite kind of feel to it: kind of skirting true quirkiness the entire time and unevenly funny for the duration.  Part of the reason it doesn't quite mesh is that too wide a net seems to have been thrown.  Not only do we have the married McAllister trying to have a baby while lusting after various women, but we have Tracy and her mom (Colleen Camp) overachieving like crazy, and the contender that McAllister throws into the election, football captain Paul (Klein) bumbling his way about, and of course his "I'm not a lesbian I just like women" sister Tammy (Campbell) trying to get revenge for her wrongs.

It's when the film sticks to its original idea, that of the school election and how bloody useless they are, that it really scores.  This is especially true of the film's shining moment, Tammy's campaign speech, a rolling bit of anarchistic vitriol that really tugged on my heartstrings.  All of the other forays into sex and betrayal get lost, all except Tammy and her quest for a soul mate, which is a pretty clever plot line when all is said and done.  A weird little movie, it's still worth a view...from your couch at home.