Director: Paul Weitz
Released: April 21, 2006
*****
Six years too late and too smarmy for it's own good, American Dreamz tells the story of an American Idol-type singing competition in conjunction with a parody of President Bush, mixed together with moments from the Iraq War in a final product so heinous and broadly pandering it's nearly unwatchable. Hugh Grant and Mandy Moore star as producer/host Martin Tweed and Kelly Clarkson-clone Sally Kendoo, respectively. As Sally catches the eye of "Tweedy," her army boyfriend returns to America after a laughable injury. Meanwhile, terrorists try to kill the president (Dennis Quaid) by planting a contestant on the show...and the president figures out he needs to think and not simply be a puppet.
What a dismal piece of crap. The script seems to want to poke fun at any number of American foibles: Bush, Cheney, Iraq, terrorism, television production, American Idol...even film "logic" (looking through keyholes, for instance) with no real rhyme or reason. Parody and comedy work when they're timely and fresh. Idol premiered four years before this movie hit theaters; Bush has been in office since 2000; Iraq has been going on since 2003; and no terrorist group in the world is as stupid as they're made out to be here. Undoubtedly Saturday Night Live and Mad TV have traversed the same ground countless times-some better, some not-before American Dreamz got in front of our eyeballs.
The one thing this film has going for it is the acting. No matter how outlandish, how moronically stupid the plot becomes...they're all game. Grant, Moore, Quaid, Marcia Gay Harden, Willem Defoe, Chris Klein, Jennifer Coolidge, Seth Myers...each of them eat the scenery as best they can. Doing his best "nice" Simon Cowell, Grant elicits a shudder anytime he smiles because we know how his type stereotypically works: he's a snake oil salesman, concerned only with his own self promotion. Moore turns out to be the standout here, not because of anything she does per se, but because she plays Sally as a real person-more real than anyone else on screen. Even in her inevitable downfall, we can't help but like her.
The White House subplot may hit too close to home, with Quaid and Defoe looking exactly like their real world counterparts. Ultimately, no matter what your politics, it becomes boring watching this bumbling president continuing to be brain dead. And the grand terrrorist plan, not to mention the cut aways to men in tents in the desert watching the show? Completely unbelievable in the real world and nearly so in this "reel" world. The worst part-possibly, depending on perspective-is the continued insistence being on the show is an American dream. Even if 20 million people watch the real American Idol, how many people aren't watching? An American dream might be for the show to go quietly into the night along with this movie.