Man of the Year: B+

Barry Levinson has managed to revive a lost genre: political satire/thriller. One could even say that his revival is a lot like a religous one: it has a lot of oomph, a lot of power, and a big ol' message. Levinson's revival of satire goes alot more smoothly than his thriller thankes largely in part to the star comedic team of Lewis Black, Christopher Walken, and Robin Williams. The fact that Levinson is notorious for letting Williams improvise huge chunks of his lines in a movie has become cinema legend (all the radio broadcasts on Good Morning Vietnam! are completely made up spur-of-the-moment). Here you can practically see Williams jump out of his typecast comedic shell and let loose as a really really funny guy. And it works. The problem really is the fact the basic thriller at the heart of the plot is so rote. An employee of Dancroy Voting Systems, Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), discovers a voting glitch but when she tries to talk the shadowy higher-ups get rid of her. The movie follows her quest to tell Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) the truth...after he's been elected president. The whole above scenario lacks any real kind of tension, except when Williams is away from the stage, and the mysterious higher-ups of Dancroy, which include Jeff Goldblum, are never given a chance to become anything more than mysterious. When a big part of your movie is based on a crumbling plot you've got a problem. Luckily the masterful comedic stylings of practically the whole cast, including some SNL cameos, save the day. Plus Levinson can write a smart satire about political cynicism. Thank goodness.