American Dreamz
Directed by: Paul Weitz
Starring: Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore, Sam Golzari, Dennis Quaid Willem Dafoe.
Rated: PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual references.
Parental Notes: This is a fairly safe movie for preteens and teens. The sexual references are fairly tame and the strong language is sparingly used.
Satire is a tricky genre. If it’s too cutting, it can come across as nasty and ineffective. If it’s too easy on its targets, it comes off across as lightweight and more comedy than satire. “American Dreamz” tries to walk the tightrope and doesn’t quite make it. Rather than offering a sharp satire on modern American politics and showbiz, it’s a political comedy with a few sharp moments in it. On the comedy-satire spectrum, it falls somewhere between “Where’s My Bush?” and “Thank You For Smoking.”
“American Dreamz” centers around a fictional reality show of the same name, modeled on “American Idol” and hosted by Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”), a borderline sociopath who loathes his job and the contestants almost as much as himself. Grant is finding a niche skewering his foppish romantic hero roles from the nineties, and he does a delightfully wicked job here. The two contestants we get to know best on the show are Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore, “Saved!”), an ambitious and cold-blooded spotlight seeker in whom Tweed sees his own reflection, and Omer (feature-film newcomer Sam Golzari), a bumbling would-be terrorist who is in the U.S. awaiting activation by his sleeper cell. They fill their roles with enthusiasm.
Omer’s moment to shine comes when he is chosen to compete on American Dreamz and it is announced that President Staton (Dennis Quaid, “Yours, Mine, and Ours”) is going to be a guest judge on the final round of the competition. Omer’s sleeper cell contacts him with instructions to make it to that final round and martyr himself to take out the president. This is a touchy thing to be satirizing, which may be why director Paul Weitz (“In Good Company”) soft pedals so many of the opportunities for sharpness in the film. The terrorists are cartoonish, with fake beards, carefully dirtied faces and turbans, surprisingly excellent English, and a TiVo. Omer is sweet and enthusiastic, and we’re reminded of it by his overly blushed cheeks. The minor contestants on the show are brushed over quickly with boring songs that bring nothing to the screen. It’s all thoroughly safe.
Another soft pedaled aspect of the film is its take on the president. President Staton is obviously supposed to be President George W. Bush, but all the jokes are broad, familiar ones. Staton isn’t too bright, his advisers keep him in the dark, and he is essentially a puppet for his conniving Chief of Staff, Wally (Willem Dafoe, “Manderlay”). Once Staton starts reading newspapers and trying to understand things for himself, there’s an opportunity for some real quality satire but instead we get him complaining that in reality North Korea and Iraq are not at all like Doctor Octopus and Magneto and giving in to Wally’s insistence that he wear an earpiece and do and say what he’s told. There’s nothing new here, and it’s disappointing to see Quaid’s spot-on parody of Bush wasted like that.
While “American Dreamz” is a competent comedy, it isn’t as smart a satire as it would like you to believe. It doesn’t quite gel as a farce because it’s vying for satire, and it doesn’t quite gel as a satire because it’s too broad. There are moments that work and it’s quite funny if you’re laid-back about it, but if you’re in search of another smart film like “Thank You For Smoking,” keep looking.
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