American Dreamz Movie Review

Writer/director/producer Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company) pokes fun at the Bush administration and the ratings juggernaut that is American Idol in his latest comedy, American Dreamz, starring Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, and Hugh Grant. The targets of this bit of social satire are easy to parody. You might even say they’re too easy. But Weitz gets off track and his primary objectives are obscured as he tries to cram too much in, including swipes at the war in Iraq, domestic terrorism and the power of the media. Simply put, American Dreamz suffers from an overabundance of subplots and characters. There's so much going on, the comedy can't survive the film’s scattershot approach.

American Dreamz asks that we imagine a world in which the President of the United States hasn’t read a newspaper since he was elected to his first term in office. On the morning of his reelection, President Staton (Dennis Quaid) picks up a paper for the first time in four years and discovers there’s a whole world out there he doesn’t understand. Although his Chief of Staff (played by Willem Dafoe in a full-on Dick Cheney disguise) encourages him to put down the paper and talk to the media, Staton refuses. Holing up in his bedroom, he becomes obsessed with reading everything he can get his hands on concerning current events. The Pres becomes a recluse, unwilling to appear in public and seemingly unable to stop reading.

The Chief of Staff realizes Staton’s traveling down a dangerous path. After all, a little knowledge can be deadly in the wrong hands. But with the help of some happy pills – supplied by the First Lady (Marcia Gay Harden in a minor role) – Staton allows his advisor to push him back out into the public eye. To top off his return, the Chief of Staff books him as a guest judge on the finale of the most popular show in America: American Dreamz.

Meanwhile, the host of American Dreamz, Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant in a smarmy yet strangely appealing performance), wants to mix things up a bit. Tired of the same old wannabes, he handpicks a show tune-loving recent immigrant from Iraq (unaware he’s a terrorist waiting to be activated) and an Orthodox cantor who raps as contestants on his show. He’s also bizarrely attracted to a country girl named Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore in her best role to date) whose smile never reaches her eyes. Martin and Sally are kindred spirits, 20+ year age difference be damned.

The set-up is there but Weitz doesn’t follow through. Whenever the message gets a little dicey or digs slightly deep, Weitz retracts the film’s claws thus making what could have been a biting commentary on his two central topics unsatisfyingly tame. Weitz also chooses broad, cartoonish comedy when something more subtle would have done the trick.

The first act is agonizingly slow. Scenes, including one with Hugh Grant and Mandy Moore tooling around in a hot car, badly misfire. Yet American Dreamz isn’t a total disaster. There are genuinely funny moments. Sam Golzari as Omer and Tony Yalda as his flamboyant gay manager steal the show from the film’s veteran actors. And the pay-off moment when Dennis Quaid as President Staton finally gets to meet Hugh Grant’s Martin Tweed character on the stage at the American Dreamz finale is almost worth the price of admission.

If there’s a message in this movie it’s been lost along the way. Or maybe I’m just looking too deep. Maybe everything Weitz is trying to say with this film is right there on the surface. We're slavishly addicted to American Idol, Americans are obsessed with success, and we can all be easily manipulated by the media. Oh, and Dick Cheney is running the government. Maybe that’s all we’re supposed to get out of American Dreamz. I wanted much more.

GRADE: C+

American Dreamz was directed by Paul Weitz and is rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual references.