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Per the wickedly clever metaphor proffered in Election, which focuses on a feverishly delirious campaign for student council president, it's in high school that our future demagogues learn how to fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. The seriocomic case in point is Reese Witherspoon as pushy Tracy Flick, director-writer Alexander Payne's diabolic embodiment of everything that is bad about American politics. She insists on being elected, and even puts it that way to God. Scaling the heights of obnoxious perkiness, Tracy ventures wherever her insatiable quest for recognition and power takes her, aided and abetted by her single-parent, equally single-minded mother. Mom perennially writes to positive role models like Connie Chung and Elizabeth Dole, seeking their advice on raising a successful woman.
Of course Tracy's suburban Nebraska classmates are neither very bothered nor necessarily taken in by the budding politician's disingenuous ways. For starters, though there is hardly a black student among them, their high school is named after George Washington Carver; this automatically gives the teenagers a leg up on the wiles of hypocrisy.
But there is indeed someone terribly upset at the prospect of a presidential win by two-faced Tracy. Absolutely tormented by the possibility is Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister, the thrice elected most popular teacher at Carver High. His character is unquestioned, for now that is. In fact, Mr. McAllister is known for his academic inquiry into the difference between ethics and morals. But, in the movie's great sense of mischievous irony, each time the educator is about to elaborate on the semantic distinction between the two, something interrupts him. Taking on a darkly comedic tone, Election then proceeds to show why the well-liked educator may not be the best judge in this matter. Is Jim's self-righteous outrage beginning to overtake him?
While Mr. McAllister isn't far from correct in his negative estimation of Miss Flick, what initially provokes his disdain for the young lady is a life-destroying affaire de coeur she has with his best friend, math teacher Dave Novotny (Mark Harelik). Later, rationalising his romantic indiscretion to Jim, the philandering mathematician blubbers, "She wanted to read my novel." Best friend Jim reminds Dave that he has not written a novel. When the school administration unearths the sordid details, Tracy stands stolid; but, as she cold-heartedly notes in a movie smartly narrated in flashback by its four principals, it was sentimental Dave who "went mushy" and was subsequently fired.
It is a testament to how finely Reese Witherspoon weaves her dragon lady-in-training that Tracy is not entirely hateful (though pretty close to it). Alas, if we are to be kind (after all, she's just a kid), perhaps Miss Flick is an aberrant product of her competitive environment. And then on second thought, maybe she's just plain evil.
But what then is supposed to excuse the sanctimonious behaviour Broderick's Jim McAllister suddenly exhibits? Is the need to be right in his DNA? Or is the social science teacher just invoking Lenin's end-justifies-the-means ploy when he sticks his nose into the election and beseeches popular football star Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run against the source of his woe? As he recruits the handsome but simple oaf, you can practically hear the urgent refrain, "gotta stop that man," from another film about shamelessly obsessive striving, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
And that isn't the only tampering Mr. McAllister perpetrates, not to mention the added moral scrutiny he invites when he allows his stultifying marriage to justify a sudden interest in old friend Dave's now divorced wife. Still convinced he is the epitome of civic integrity, the teacher now takes a stroll down the proverbial garden path, a tragically humorous odyssey that Mr. Broderick undertakes with delectable whimsy. Director Payne (who co-wrote Election with Jim Taylor) injects terrific little nuances along the way, not the least of which is a perfectly timed bee sting to Mr. McAllister's eyelid, an absurdly effective Cain sign to symbolise this once noble character's hilarious metamorphosis.
Added to this intelligently mordant swipe at everything from political ambition to adultery to secondary education, there is a zany twist on sibling rivalry. Candidate Paul's gay younger sister, shrewdly portrayed by Jessica Campbell, suddenly tosses her hat in the political ring. Stirred to candidacy when a disenchanted girlfriend dumps her to take up with brother Paul, Tammy soulfully narrates: "It's not like I'm a lesbian. I'm interested in the person. It's just that the only people who have interested me so far are girls."
On Candidates' Night, angry little sister gives vent to her anarchical leanings, declaring that, if elected, her first act as president will be to abolish the student council. A fickle audience cheers with glee. Phil Reeves as abashed Principal Hendricks, the template for every unyielding school bureaucrat in America, immediately asks for Tammy's suspension.
Sharp-witted and astute, director Payne's daring exercise in social satire topples several sacred cows and leaves few taboos unexplored. Yet he manages this comically scathing devastation while adroitly maintaining an artfully exquisite buoyancy. The results of this Election are in, and movie audiences are declared the overwhelming winners by a landslide.
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