| THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IDOL : Paul Weitz's 'American Dreamz' [3/10] |
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| Tuesday, 18 April 2006 | |
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A relentlessly mirthless would-be satire, American Dreamz takes aim at some pretty massive, juicy targets - primarily the TV show American Idol and the presidency of George W Bush - only for every blunt arrow to fall frustratingly, tamely short. The premise is offbeat, but not without potential: a recently re-elected US President (Dennis Quaid) is persuaded to serve as 'celebrity judge' on the finale of the nation's top-rated TV show, American Dreamz - a talent-search which bears a very strong resemblance to American Idol, complete with a smarmy-sarky Brit doling out many brickbats and a few bouquets (Hugh Grant turns in a lukewarm Simon Cowell semi-impression, with elements of his Bridget Jones Daniel Cleaver). On the big night, the show has boiled down to two contestants : Ohio white-bread girl-next-door Sally (Mandy Moore), and middle-eastern immigrant Omer (Sam Golzari - his name conspicuously absent from both poster and opening credits, despite being at least co-lead). Both have their secrets: Sally hides a calculating, near-sociopathic personality behind her bubbly exterior, while the hapless Omer is actually a terrorist under orders to blow up the President live on air... In other hands these ideas might have been developed with the Swiftian force that made last year's Team America : World Police such an unexpected delight. Something has gone very wrong with the dialogue, however, which appears to have been passed through some kind of 'de-humourising' process. It's especially distressing to see such a high-calibre cast desperately trying to inject life into the misbegotten enterprise. Seldom in recent years have so many talented folk been so criminally wasted on screen: Grant; Dennis Quaid (the 'George W Bush' figure); Marcia Gay Harden (the 'Laura Bush'); Willem Dafoe (seemingly having a rather good time as a pudgy cross between Dick Cheney and Karl Rove); Moore (her character roughly equivalent to Kelly Clarkson, sans belting pipes); Martha Coolidge (as Sally's mother); Chris Klein (as Sally's doofus, putupon, serviceman on-off boyfriend); Judy Greer and John Cho (as Grant's assistants); even House of Sand and Fog survivor Shohreh Aghdashloo (as Omer's aunt), who provided more (inadvertent) laughs in her brief, bizarre, hand-and-head-wiggling cameo during The Exorcism of Emily Rose than you'll find in the entire running-time of American Dreamz. You'd have thought that, with this lot up on screen, , at least some gags would crack a smile or two - no such luck. The picture limps from scene to scene, never remotely threatening to build anything like a comic or satirical momentum. The climax intriguingly - but, as it turns out, rather lamely - tries to update the showbiz-assassination finale of Robert Altman's Nashville, but, like much of the picture, feels more like the kind of larkish nonsense that might just pass muster in a teenagers' school play. In a big-budget Hollywood production, the net result is wince-inducing embarrassment. Neil Young 18th April, 2006 AMERICAN DREAMZ : [3/10] : USA 2006 : Paul WEITZ : 107 mins (BBFC timing) seen at Odeon cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 18th April 2006 - press show check it out |
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