AMERICAN DREAMZ

by Joe Barber on Apr.22, 2006, under Joe Barber's Movie Reviews

JOE’S REVIEW “AMERICAN DREAMZ”

Satire is a tricky business. It has to walk a tightrope between subtlty and outrageousness. Hold back too much and the edge neede to drive the point home is blunted. Go too far over the top and your point is lost as the audience you hope to arouse shakes you off as being simply ridiculous. The best satire moves back and forth between the extremes without ever going too far in their extreme. Several times in “American Dreamz”, screenwriter/director Paul Weitz (”American Pie”, “About A Boy”) forgets this rule and his movie-and audience-suffer for it. Often, he regains the needed balance and, when he does, the movie hits the mark and makes you laugh.

“Dreamz” follows two paraell storylines. One involves a newly re-elcted President (Dennis Quaid) who, having won an overwhelming victory, suddenly finds himself frozen in depression and inaction. He’s started readimg the newspapers and discovered the all is well malarkey he and his cheif of staff (Willem Dafoe, made up to look like Vice President Cheney) have been selling the public just isn’t so. Even the First Lady (Marcia Gay Harden) can’t seen to cheer or motivate the leader of the Free World.

Hoping to raise the President’s slumping mood and poll numbers, the Cheif of Staff reaches out to television. Specifically, he makes a deal for the President to appear as a guest judge on the finals of “American Dreamz”, a weekly singing talent show. Produced, hosted and judged by the cynical and sarcastic Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant), the competition is quickly whittled down to two contestants: Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), a singer of modest talents who will do anything to become famous and Omer (Sam Golzari), who, through a series of accidents, ends up in the competition with a major secret haunting each performance.

Weitz’s shots at President Bush may mirror the reality of his behavior and polices, but the man remains too elusive a target for him. The script seems unwilling and/or unable to take a stand on the man and his flaws, turning almosrt mealy mouthed in its attempts to skewer Mr. Bush. Quaid and Harden, both normally quite good at comedy, are left adrift for the most part and their performances reflect it.

Happily, the anti-”Idol”-ization is more effective. Grant makes a pretty good stand-in for Simon and Moore continues to be the best and most consistantly interesting of all the young singer/actresses Hollywood studios keep forcing us to endure. Golzari’s OImer is the movie’s scene stealer, a delightfully comic presence, even though his plotline contains a dark element. Still, this part of the movie could have used some sharper writing and focus, with more songs by the other competitors and mokery of real life judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

All in all, “American Dreamz” tries hard and scores several points, but lands wide of its overall target too often. Weitz is a skilled filmmaker but he’d do well the next time he sets out to take on the Establishment to take a deep breath and be more observant and less willing to go for the first joke that comes to mind. That’s happening all too often in the real world these days.

MPAA RATING:PG-13 for profanity and mild sexuality.

JOE’S RATING: TWO AND A HALF STARS.