Random Movie: The Campaign (2012)

In spite of the cast and crew, I can’t say I was expecting much from The Campaign. Sure, Will Ferrell is still arguably one of the best comedic actors still working but his recent output has been inconsistent. Likewise, Zach Galifianakis has had a few good roles but is largely coasting on being the weird, lovable lunk that John Candy may have played twenty years ago.

In the film, Farrell pretty accurately portays Cam Brady, a North Carolina good ol’ boy who is running for Congress unopposed. He’s suave and well-spoken but doesn’t actually believe a single thing he says other than he wants to be congressman again. In other words, he nails a typical politician with ease. After Brady leaves a lewd answering machine message at Jack McBrayer’s house, the Motch brothers (Dan Akroyd and John Lithgow) decide to throw a monkey wrench in his campaign by backing Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), a simpleton with no political experience who is easily swayed into poor decisions by money and power. In other words, Galifianakis is also dead-on with his portrayal.



Even though it is supposed to be a comedy, Jay Roach’s film feels more like an indictment of the political system as a whole. Almost all of Brady’s bad actions and panderings feel lifted from similar events from real-life political participants, only played for more comedic effect from the ill-fated DUI chase to the even more ill-fated snake handling. Even though he is the bigger star, Farrell quickly becomes the default antagonist with his mannerisms that are only alleviated by the sage words of his campaign manager, the always welcome Jason Sudeikis.

After realizing Marty is ill-equipped to hold his own against Brady, the Motch brothers bring in a handler for the Huggins campaign, played by a deadly-serious Dylan McDermott. The best parts of the film reside in the second act after Huggins enters the race as his dress and demeanor are dictated by the villainous McDermott including having his wife adopt a more ‘Katie Couric’ hair style and distancing Huggins from his communistic, Chinese pugs. The main reason that I find these portions funny is that I can imagine the same thing happening in real political pursuits. In fact, nothing from the campaign trail is left untouched here as sex tapes, negative campaign ads, and even nonsensical debate strategies are employed, mostly by Brady, in order to achieve his desired goal.

Farrell again plays the sleaze-ball power-hungry politician easily even as he lets a few hints of facetiousness slip in. Galifianakis maintains Huggins as a tender dofus which certainly gives his character and campaign an edge even as he’s egged on by McDermott. In fact, better than the two leads were the supporting cast of McDermott and Sudekis as well as Brian Cox who mostly stand behind but offer some chuckles here and there. It also helps that the film employed actual news anchors to give commentary as the race unfolds with all of the typical scandal that you’d expect.

It’s surely not a coincidence that this came out the summer before a big election and that seems to drive the not-so underlying point of the movie home. While Ferrell is a Democrat and Galifianakis is a Republican, this isn’t a red-versus-blue story as neither are running on principle or morals, but on whatever dirty tricks and tactics will deliver. It’s clear that either Roach or the production team thinks politics are a big mess. And that candidates with Chinese pugs are damn Commies!