"Irresistible" Sees Jon Stewart Hitting Wide of the Bullseye in His Area of Expertise
IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 14, YOU SHOULD ASK A PARENT IF YOU ARE ALLOWED, IF THEY SAY NO…IT MEANS NO!
48/100 “sour”
By: Keaton Marcus
Comedian Jon Stewart has come to direct this new political satire Irresistible starring Steve Carell and Rose Byrne that went straight to home video June 26th. It's a surprisingly soft, and weirdly unfunny affair that has its moments but never really takes off. Especially with the powerhouse cast behind it. Carell, as always, is a likable guy. We've come to enjoy his screen presence mainly because of his iconic performance as Michael Scott in The Office, and he once again gives a suitable outing. The cast is all doing a fine job, and the premise is actually quite interesting. Too bad they don't do anything special with it, settling for a mildly entertaining comedy that plays it way too safe. It doesn't attack enough at either the right or left wing of the US. In fact, it rarely even picks a political side, leaving audiences to wonder what the intention was. There are laughs, but this thing has no meaning. The result: a decent, but painfully mediocre film.
The movie is about a Democratic political consultant named Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell), who after facing an unimaginable loss with Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential election, is a bit stuck in life. However, when he views a viral video of an ex-Marine hero, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper) standing up against the Wisconsin board, he finds the perfect candidate. Zimmer proposes to Hastings to run as the Democratic candidate for the mayor of Deernaken, Wisconsin. After he reluctantly agrees, they go on a journey to give the state its first blue mayor since the 70s, despite the ruthless Republican consultant Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) standing against them. Again, the plot is really intriguing, but it doesn't pull enough satirical punches to succeed.
Steve Carell is a great actor, and lately, he's had some good movies like Beautiful Boy and Last Flag Flying, but he didn't have the same success with Welcome to Marven. He even tried to get back into the TV gig by leading Netflix's Space Force, a popular, but critically panned show. The latest installment to the Despicable Me franchise wasn't even charming. My point is that Carell needs another incredibly hilarious performance, he's a funny guy when given the right screenplay, but in terms of comedies, there is not much to find. His boy-scouts attitude in this film really does work, though too bad Stewart wasn't capable enough. Rose Byrne was a bit wasted in my opinion, not given enough stuff to do. Still, I enjoyed both her and Chris Cooper's performances respectively.
This movie was made to please all of America in the time of the pandemic, in the last few months of Donald Trump's reign over the States (hopefully). The thing is, what the hell, Mr. Stewart. This is your area of expertise, and you’ve missed your chance at creating some smart satire. Terrible things are happening in the country politically, and your next move is to glorify both sides! I was expecting a comedy that played hard, completely tearing apart the system of the US, but what we got as a whole was a little present wrapped in the warm arms of familiarity. It didn't try anything new, instead, it took the time to make sure that it didn't receive backlash from the president. It's the movie that the United States of America does not need at the moment. We need a satire that challenges everything that our country stands for right now. And this film didn't do that for me.
The final opinion is: Though kept slightly afloat by decent performances and a few solid laughs, Irresistible flounders by failing to give much satirical or political bite...$KIP IT
