Irresistible

 1/4

Starring: Steve Carrell, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis, Rose Byrne

Rated R for Language including Sexual References

Satire must be two things: smart and funny;  Jon Stewart's film "Irresistible" is neither.  The points it makes are obvious, the jokes are non-existent, and the amount of bite it has is akin to someone who is trying to eat a ribeye steak without their dentures.  It's easy to see what Stewart is trying to do, but he keeps missing the mark.

After the shocking upset in 2016, Democratic strategist Paul Zimmer (Carrell) is reeling.  He's looking to rebrand the Democratic Party, and after viewing a viral video of a Marine veteran chastising new voting regulations, he has found his answer.  He's going to target rural voters in swing states by putting this man, Jack Hastings (Cooper), into the Mayor's seat as a Democrat.  It doesn't take long before his Republican nemesis, Faith Brewster (Byrne) catches on, and soon this small town is going to be turned upside down by the proxy war between Paul and Faith.  And their donors.

With this film, Stewart is on the attack, and his message is this: money in politics is corrupting our government, and politicians only pretend to care about their constituents to get votes.  Neither is a revolutionary idea.  That makes the film too obvious to have an edge, and that's death to a satire that has an ax to grind.  We already know what Stewart is saying, and he doesn't find a way to make us listen.

Stewart does manage to do one thing I thought would be impossible: make me hate Steve Carrell.  Carrell has built a career being the put upon underdog, but demonstrated range and versatility as an actor when given the chance ("Foxcatcher" and "The Way Way Back" are testaments to this).  But Paul Zimmer is so mean, so arrogant and so condescending that he can't be funny.  He's an obnoxious little weasel that I kept wishing would get squashed by an 18 wheeler.  His counterpart Faith Brewster is little better, but at least Stewart doesn't force us to spend every scene with her.

Granted, Paul and Faith are human punching bags by which Stewart can drive home his angriest barbs.  They're made to be fools who deserve comeuppance.  What's strange is that the performances are so flat; it's as if they all did this film in an afternoon as a favor to Stewart.  Carrell has none of the charm or personality that he has brought to his other screen counterparts; he simply mugs the camera as a complete bastard.  Rose Byrne might as well be reading cue cards.  Even Chris Cooper, who can always be counted on for good work, doesn't seem to be trying.

Part of the problem is that, in hammering home his message, Stewart loses sight of his characters.  They become mouthpieces for the Gospel of John Stewart.  Whether or not I or anyone else agrees with them is irrelevant; fiction films are not polemics, and when they cross that line, they are irreparably damaged.

Given Stewart's left-leaning politics, one might be forgiven in viewing this film as revenge for the last four years.  Not at all.  Stewart is holding both parties accountable for the zoo that our politics has become.  That's all well and good.  What isn't is that he doesn't find a way to do so in a way that it's funny, insightful or even remotely interesting.