Man of the Year

Man of the Year has all the makings of a good-timey political satire. The commercials make it look like a laugh riot. As it turns out, Man of the Year is a dopey political thriller penned by writer-director Barry Levinson, a guy who seems long past his prime. Robin Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a Jon-Stewart-type talk show host who likes to rail against the government during his pre-show standup routine. When a member of his audience suggests he should run for president, he decides to give it a go. He finds himself in the race, and we think we are in for some nice political satire right in time for elections and the next presidential campaign. Instead we get a “Big Corporations are Bad!” cautionary tale about a crooked company that makes faulty voting machines. This is about as uninteresting a topic as I could imagine for a film, and Levinson turns it into the movie’s focus. Williams ceased being funny a long time ago, Levinson was never funny, and Laura Linney makes an ass of herself in a supporting role.