Review of The Campaign (2012) by Maksim B — 22 Mar 2013

Raunchy, hilarious and simple, The Campaign is a surprisingly entertaining and almost satisfyingly sharp political satire. Big gags, smart humor, nasty jokes and a small portion of sentimentality are combined in a cynical and emotional observation of the typical political campaigning in the US.

In terms of story-telling, The Campaign is a pretty simple movie, but below the surface of this predictable story, there is a powerful punch in the face of the current political system, the shallow and immoral political campaigning and everything manipulative surrounding them. From the very first moment director Jay Roach unleashes his sarcastic and crude humor, typical for him from his Austin Powers deliveries. There are laughs for everyone as the presence of Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis provides different types of funny characters and diversified jokes.

It is a real pleasure to look at the way how the fake family values, the manipulative campaigning, the corporate interests and the political arrogance of nowadays are being exposed, only to reveal the nastiness of the political campaigns and the typical political life. In addition to this, it should be pointed out that the combination Ferrell-Galifianakis is definitely an explosive one as both of them deliver performances and characters in line with the initial expectations.. Unexpectedly (for me, at least), Will Ferrell delivers his best and funniest performance from a European viewer's point of view. He shows an amazing diversity when it comes to jokes: zig-zagging between brutal gags, sophisticated humor, crazy jokes, stupid laughs or just being funny. Zach Galifianakis is equally funny, but his character and jokes are more or less closer to the typical Galifianakis's characters.

Of course, The Campaign is far from begin a classic, mainly because of two simple reasons. Firstly, it never gets truly provocative adn the punch in the face of politics (and the faces of babies and dogs) is not as cynical as some may have hoped. Secondly, towards the end, in order to provide a sort of "happy end", director Jay Roach sweetens too much his movie and the sentimentality goes a bit above the desirable level.

The Campaign is definitely a comedy and political satire to be seen. It provides everything that it promises and even it surprises with the outstanding Will Ferrell. Even if you have never liked Ferrell, you would be delighted by him and the movie. Definitely a worth-seeing delivery !