Election

<em>'Election'</em> builds relatively slowly though really does become a fun movie by its conclusion. It's most definitely worth a watch. Matthew Broderick is excellent throughout, as are the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Chris Klein. The films goes to some unexpected places and manages to make it work. And there's a great callback in there too. I will say that I didn't love the internal monologue bits, but they didn't derail the film for me in any major way.

This early outing for Reese Witherspoon ("Tracy Flick") sees her desperate to become class President in her high school. Clever, ruthless and determined - she takes on all comers in her quest for success, and woe betide anyone who gets in her way. Happily hapless teacher Matthew Broderick is charged with overseeing the election campaign, and conscious that his front-runner is a bit of a nightmare manages to convince recently injured school hottie "Paul" (Chris Klein) to stand against her. Though he be thick as two short planks, he is a formidable challenge for "Flick" as most of the school don't appear to be too bright, either... and the fight is on. Her scheming machinations and his attempts to foil her ambitions make for quite a fun 100 minutes. The dialogue can be a bit earthy at times, but don't, whatever you do, look for plot complexities nor a thought-provoking script - except, perhaps, in addressing the odiousness of blind ambition and perhaps, 30 years later - it sends us a gentle reminder that if we all just sleep through our respective democratic processes then we will get people like this really running the place.... Klein is quite good as the nice-but-dim "Paul" too!

Aside from the comedy and political satire, it's a coming-of-age movie of a teenager and her teacher who goes in the opposite direction. Self-control, which is part of growing up is the main theme. Flick, who seems the essence of self-control, is running for class president and goes bananas in the scene where she pulls down her rival's posters. Luck saves her from paying for that and it looks like she learns from it. And teacher McAllister regresses and regresses, first into a teenager when he plans an extramarital affair with his wife's best friend. Then, angry at and hating Flick, he gives into his emotions again and discards some of Flick's votes, soon losing both his marriage and his job. The last scene is of McAllister years later being a tourist in D.C. Suddenly he sees Flick coming out of a government building with some suited D.C. types, and going into a limo. Furious, he flings a full drink cup into its back window. The limo stops and like a bad little boy, he runs away. The regression is complete.