Man Of The Year

I first watched the comedy movie Dave in 1993 on an Air 2000 flight from Kos with Mastersun. It featured Hollywood funnyman Kevin Kline in a dual role as both the American President, and an ordinary guy who happens to look exactly like him, and has to take over his job as American President when he gets sick.

Dual role films are never a good choice for flights when the TV is hanging from a faraway ceiling somewhere down the aisle. A lot of it made no sense to me, simply because I honestly didn’t know that both characters looked the same.

Today (ish) however, on Cathay Pacific flight CX254 from London to Hong Kong, I got to watch most of the movie again on my own personal seat-back TV, and I enjoyed it a lot more. (even despite the first lady's slightly difficult-to-explain loose ending that the film prefers to ignore)

Anyway, on my second flight today (ish), (Cathay Pacific flight CX 107 from Hong Kong to Auckland) I chose to follow it with a completely new film instead, and watched Robin Williams' Man Of The Year.


It featured Hollywood funnyman Robin Williams as an ordinary guy who becomes the American President, when someone else should be.

Hmm, it seems like any old fool can get into the White House these days.

Anyway, this was an odd drama. It seemed quite unbalanced to have Williams’ extended improvisations (I assume he was improvising) coming from such a lonely isolated character, but then that’s what makes him real.

The film is also edited very strangely, going off at big tangents with characters who don’t appear to be important. Again, though, this gives a it a feeling of uneven reality.

The central moral dilemma that Williams’ character faces is also a good one. He discovers that he only became President because of a computer-glytch, which no-one else knows about. Does he ignore his good principles by keeping his fake victory a secret? Or does he let his good principles be ignored by allowing his opponent to take his place?

I think he should hire someone who looks exactly like him to take the rap, but that’s just me.