American Dreamz - Review
Review by Jack Foley
X FACTOR style reality TV collides with terrorism and US politics in American Dreamz, a woeful satire that marks a major misfire from About A Boy writer-director Paul Weitz.
Hugh Grant stars as Martin Tweed, the Simon Cowell-like host of a runaway TV hit show called American Dreamz that pits eager contestants against each other in spite of their limited talents.
Keen to remain at the top, Tweed is forever striving to keep things fresh and goes all out to find the right sort of participants in order to keep viewers watching.
Hence, for his latest season Tweed has managed to secure the President of the United States (Dennis Quaid) as a special judge in the season finale, as well as a diverse group of contestants ranging from sweet Southern belle Sally (Mandy Moore), who’s not so nice in real life, and bumbling would-be terrorist, Omer (Sam Golzari), who has a passion for Broadway show tunes.
Thrown into the mix is the president’s manipulative Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe) who views the reality TV show as an opportunity to win over voters, as well as a dopey ex-soldier (Chris Klein) with the hots for Sally who is being used as a tool to generate audience sympathy.
Sadly, viewers will have very little sympathy with the mess that results given that American Dreamz (that’s “with a Z”) squanders any of its potential from the outset.
For starters, the mix of reality TV and terrorism makes for an uneasy alliance, particularly as the so-called dark humour is more insulting than inspired.
Most characters are reduced to straightforward stereotype, while none warrant any sympathy whatsoever making it impossible to know who to root for.
Grant clearly struggles with a dodgy Cockney accent and some woeful material that renders his Martin Tweed a low-rent version of Simon Cowell, while Quaid’s take on President Bush is painfully overplayed to the point that he becomes excruciating company to be around.
Only Dafoe emerges with any credit while the likes of Moore and Golzari simply go through the motions as the contestants of the reality TV show – singing and performing in deliberately OTT fashion.
By the time the endeavour reaches its drawn out conclusion and the President is placed next to a suicide bomber who has been embraced by the American population viewers can pretty much guess the outcome, as Weitz’s tedious script proceeds to ram home the message (and the irony) as obviously as possible.
At a time when Hollywood has largely succeeded in delivering some thoughtful explorations of world politics with films like Munich and Syriana, it’s all the more alarming that work like American Dreamz can still find its way into the mainstream.
That it comes from a writer-director as talented as Weitz – who was also responsible for last year’s excellent In Good Company – makes the disappointment all the more crushing.
Far from being an American Dreamz, this embarrassing experience emerges as a nightmare for all concerned.
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 111mins