Election (1999) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Alexander Payne

Starring:  Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Molly Hagan, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell


If student council played any part in my high school life, I don't recall it.     Maybe our high school had student council elections, but I'm not about to wrack my brain to remember them.    The student council election in Election is taken as seriously as a presidential election, with candidates stumping for votes and engaging in underhanded shenanigans to win.   For type-A personalities like Tracy Flick (Witherspoon), winning the student council presidency at Carver High School has to happen.   Her entire self-esteem depends on it.    Anyone who bakes 450 cupcakes with "Pick Flick" on them isn't going to take the news of a defeat gracefully.

Standing in her way, behind the scenes, is teacher Jim McAllister (Broderick), who at first tolerates Tracy always being the first to raise her hand to answer a question.   But then he grows to loathe her enough to ensure that she doesn't win.     "People like Tracy Flick must be stopped," Jim states in voice over narration.   Why does he detest her?   For one thing, she was involved in an affair with a teacher friend of Jim's teacher friend that cost the friend his job.   Another might be a secret attraction to her.  He might hate himself for thinking of her like that, but that doesn't mean he can stop doing so.  No matter what his reasoning, he feels he must throw a roadblock in Tracy's future.

Election is a black comedy with people trying to maintain a facade of morality and fair play, while hiding secret obsessions and ulterior motives.      The characters are either perpetrators or victims, depending on who you ask.     It is narrated at various times by Jim, Tracy, Paul Metzler (Klein), and his sister Tammy (Campbell).     Paul is a dopey, popular jock recruited by Jim to oppose Tracy for student council president.   Tammy decides to run because Paul unwittingly stole her girlfriend and wants revenge.    Tammy denies being a lesbian.   "I believe in the person, not the gender.  It just so happens that every person I've ever been attracted to is a girl."   Tammy's campaign promise:  If I'm elected student council president, I'll ensure we never have to sit through these assemblies again," which is met with a standing ovation by the students.

Jim is a well-liked teacher, but his personal life is a bit of a mess.    He and his wife are unable to conceive a child.     Sex with his wife has become workmanlike, with her ordering him to "fill me up."   He doesn't find much solace in porn, but he does in Dave's ex-wife Linda, with whom he attempts to have an affair.    That doesn't work out well for him.    He is stood up at the motel room he books for them and a bee stings him in the eyelid causing his eye to look like it went through twelve rounds with Rocky Balboa.

Teachers like Jim have seen students like Tracy come and go.    Each graduating class has two-faced schemers like her that rankle others to their core.   You want to introduce her to Valium.   Jim decides to take a stand against Tracy, who is much more manipulative than her cheerful demeanor would indicate.  He finds he's no match.    All of this is narrated in nostalgic fashion by the characters, as if they are reflecting on a magical time in their lives and they are remembering it with fondness.    Jim especially has a way of looking on the bright side of things, which dissolves quickly when he sees Tracy again long after the election and its aftermath are over.

Writer-director Payne creates a satire that cheerfully skewers high school politics and sexual politics.     Broderick is a million miles removed from Ferris Bueller.    He is a man at war with his desires who makes all the wrong moves when he should've just left well enough alone.  Witherspoon is prim, proper, falsely cheerful, and naturally underhanded.   Winning to her is the only acceptable result in anything she does, so it's almost sad to see her crying when she receives word she may have lost the election.  What will she do with the remaining cupcakes?

Payne further illustrates his gift for subtle comedy in films like Sideways and The Descendants.     He has an understanding of human nature.     He sees that people sometimes just don't get out of their own way and are at the mercy of whatever drives them.     Jim would've been just fine if Tracy Flick never entered his life.    But she did and despite his attempts to defeat her, he finds there is another person just like her lurking right around the corner.