The Campaign

The Campaign follows Will Ferrell’s Cam Brady, a slick Congressman seeking his fifth term, as he finally faces some real competition in the form of Zach Galifianakis’ sweet and naive Marty Huggins, with the movie, for the most part, detailing the increasingly contentious battle that ensues between the disparate characters. It’s a seemingly can’t-miss premise that is, at the outset, employed to entertaining effect by director Jay Roach, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell, has infused the proceedings with a pervasively agreeable feel that’s heightened by the charismatic performances and sporadic inclusion of hilarious bits of comedy. (In terms of the latter, there is, for example, a laugh-out-loud funny scene wherein Marty’s family, by his own request, divulges their biggest secrets to progressively horrifying effect.) The slapdash narrative is, as a result, initially not quite as problematic as one might’ve feared, yet it’s hard to deny that the film does, after a certain point, begin to to demonstrably go off the rails – with the increased emphasis on unfunny and hopelessly misguided sequences triggering the movie’s palpable downfall (eg a terminally stupid interlude in which Cam comes under attack for creating a socialist paradise called Rainbowland as a small child). Henchy and Harwell’s subsequent reliance on unreasonably over-the-top elements cements The Campaign‘s place as a hit-and-miss comedy that’s ultimately more miss than hit, and the viewer can’t help but walk away from the movie feeling as though the filmmakers have squandered a setup with limitless potential.

** out of ****