The Campaign
The Campaign punches below the ballot box
Will Ferrell’s absurd brand of slapstick, effectively blurs the line between reality and raunchy.
There’s something about the latest Will Ferrell comedy depicting two U.S. Republicans battling it out to become North Carolina’s congressman that rings true.
Maybe it’s the John Edwards hair, or the willingness for media to tack “gate” onto the end of just about any sort of scandal, but The Campaign seems to draw a lot from real political fixtures and incidents. It’s filtered, of course, through Ferrell’s absurd brand of slapstick, effectively blurring the line between reality and raunchy.
The Campaign could almost be seen as prequel to Ferrell’s Tony Award-nominated Broadway play You’re Welcome America: A final night with George W. Bush. Where the latter was a depiction of the real-life former president patting himself on the back for all his supposed accomplishments, the former is about a fictional congressman who, if he found himself in the White House, would surely ruin the country.
There’s really not much difference between Ferrell’s impression of Bush and his role here as North Carolina congressman Cam Brady, the incompetent incumbent who keeps winning simply because no one else runs. That, and it doesn’t hurt that his platform is easy to remember — “America, Jesus, freedom.”
It’s a wonder the movie wasn’t set in Texas though considering Ferrell’s obvious muse, but it works just the same, both as a comedy and as a political satire about just how low politicians will go on the campaign trail.
Timed, obviously, to coincide with the U.S. Republican nomination and ensuing presidential election, The Campaign looks at what happens when Brady, on his way to re-election, makes a major gaffe (in this case leaving a filthy message to his mistress on the wrong answering machine), leaving his more levelheaded campaign manager (Jason Sudeikis) to try to clean up the mess.
But that’s not before billionaire powers that be the Moch Brothers (played by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow in a not-so-subtle jab at real-life movers and shakers the Koch Brothers) decide it’s time to back another candidate.
That man is Marty Huggins, but for Zach Galifianakis fans, it’s essentially his fictional twin brother Seth, who nobody’s seen much of since Galifianakis broke out in 2009 with The Hangover. The name’s changed, but the shtick is the same, right down to the voice, poor taste in clothing and “Saddam Hussein” moustache. The soft-spoken Huggins seems like the least likely Republican candidate, but his blue-blooded family’s political ties run deep, so he’s groomed and moulded by a shadowy campaign manager (Dylan McDermott) into a political machine perfectly capable of racing Brady to the bottom.
Fans of both Galifianakis and Ferrell will see a lot of the laughs coming, as director Jay Roach (Dinner for Schmucks, Meet the Parents) doesn’t push either actor out of their pre-established comfort zones. But when the big laughs do land — the campaignsmear videos particularly standout — the comedy is funnier than anything from The Other Guys and Due Date combined.
It’s also possible that Huggins’ two pug dogs, Cupcake and Poundcake, have even more screen presence than The Artist’s Uggie (who makes a particularly inspired cameo). It’s just too bad the breed is Chinese, and therefore deemed too communist for the campaign trail, a joke pushed even further when they’re promptly replaced with a golden retriever and a chocolate Labrador named Sergeant and Scout.
Of course, being a comedy from the Ferrell/adam Mckay production team, there’s also a fair share of cheap laughs, such as a slow-motion shot of a baby getting punched in the face, but when The Campaign focuses on the downward spiral of campaigning, mudslinging and attack ads without going too over the top, it actually comes off as a sharp satire.