Once in a while you will get a movie that is not only relevant but entertaining and thought provoking on multiple levels. ""Man of the Year"" asks the question: What if a comedian like Jon Stewart ran for president?
The Jon Stewart in this film is Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), a comedian with his own ""Daily Show""-type talk show. The film takes place during a presidential election year in which the population seems to be frustrated with both parties (sound familiar?). A woman in the audience on Dobbs' show tells him he should run for president. Dobbs plays it off, but after e-mails start to flood in and interest grows across the Internet, Dobbs decides to do just that.
Complicating the story is the subplot of the company of Delacroy, which has invented a new, quick-touch system of voting. Laura Linney plays Eleanor Green, an employee of Delacroy, who finds a glitch in the system right before the election. Delcacroy officials (one played by Jeff Goldblum) try to keep Eleanor quiet by breaking into her home and injecting her with drugs, to make anything she would bring to the press unbelievable. When Dobbs wins the election due to this glitch, Green must figure out a way to set America straight.
This scenario is modern and topical enough that the audience is carried along the whole way through the far-fetched combination of events. Delacroy is clearly a satire of Diebold, the real-life electronic voting company that has received accusations of contributing to vote total irregularities, and the emergence of Stewart/Colbert ‘08 buttons and T-shirts makes Dobbs' election seem at least somewhat feasible. The film makes the point that more people turn to comedians like Bill Maher, Jay Leno and Stephen Colbert for their political news than CNN. And with Schwarzenegger in office, who says it couldn't happen?
The combination of the political-satire plot and thriller subplot makes for a film without a dull moment, although it becomes a bit much when ""Man of the Year"" tries to mix in a romance between Dobbs and Green.
The film neither credits nor discredits the role of political comedians, nor does it try to slap America in the face with its reliance on new technology and celebrity comedians. It merely provokes—which is all it needs to do. In one of the final scenes, Dobbs explains that it's the comedian's job to shake things up, and even if that doesn't belong in the White House, their very presence can change everything just the same.
