'Irresistible' Review: Steve Carrell flick on circus around politics is rife with cringeworthy and stale humor
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy,” said political publicist Ernest Benn and this fits the narrative that Jon Stewart has presented in his film 'Irresistible'. Steve Carrell as Gary Simmer, Rose Byrne as Faith Brewster, Chris Cooper as Colonel Jack Hastings, and Mackenzie Davis as Diana Hastings star in a political comedy that falls flat even as it tries to sell the idea that a campaign is less about politics and more about maths.
The one applying the wrong remedy to the situation that he is in after the miserable loss caused by the 2016 election is none other than Gary. The film begins with Gary and Faith, each giving an interview to the press where they confess the truth about their jobs -- to spin everything possible and come out on top and help their candidate take the Oval Office. They are liars, and they specialize in manipulating dissonance among the public to their advantage. When one of them (read Gary) is desperate for a win after failing to help Hillary Clinton take the Oval Office; he takes anything that he gets. That's how he fell hook, line, and sinker for the idea of a retired colonel being a Democrat.
The reason that the Democrats failed to make a mark in the 2016 elections was that they did not have the connections that their opposition did with the rural US -- otherwise dubbed as the heartland of the country. In fact, Gary, in one weak moment even says that his party failed mainly because men like him did not know how to talk to the conservative populace in the country and the Republicans managed to succeed because of a shared belief in faith among other things. He hopes to strike a balance by getting Jack Hastings, a man from Deerlaken, Wisconsin, who seems more of a Republican on the outside, to run for mayor of the town as a Democrat.
The reason Gary was convinced that Jack was his man was because of the way that he had stood up for undocumented workers of his town at a hearing. He convinces Jack that as a mayor, there is a lot more difference he can make at his town than as a retired Marine. He manages Jack's campaign and even engineers a bait, that will lead his nemesis, Faith Brewster (Byrne), into getting involved in the local race.
He wants to win his mojo back after the failure of the 2016 elections and the only way to do so is to get the Republican National Committee involved. Making the local race for mayor bigger than it is required to be, employing tactics that requires a huge amount of money to be pumped into the campaign, all of this Gary does to influence the national stage, but what he isn't aware of is the fact that he is playing at something that he isn't even aware of completely.
That he doesn't understand the people of Deerlaken, is something that was clear in the first few minutes after he landed in the town. However, to underestimate the collective intelligence of a town and to assume that you know the best because you are coming from the big bad city of Washington DC is a class snob act. The premise is interesting, but somehow, what should have been sharp jabs ends up fizzling out.
The humor feels stale and some moments, that are supposed to be funny because they are absurd, end up becoming nothing but visual balderdash. For instance, there is a scene of Faith licking Gary's face right after a cold verbal spat. Is this supposed to portray Faith's attraction? All it manages to do is make us cringe.
Such miscalculated moments are what the film is riddled with and not even a talented cast can help the film rise above the disappointingly dense plot. The only part about the film that really hits the spot is in the last scene which sees a bunch of news hosts discussing how media is complicit in presenting false narratives.
'Irresistible' is available on VOD from June 26.