American Dreamz (Paul Weitz)
I saw
American Dreamz a couple weeks ago at a screening. I'm glad it was free. The resulting movie, while watchable with a few scattered chuckles, is a miss and totally underwhelming.
You basically have three ideas for a movie crammed into one. No one of them is very inspired or interesting, and they don't ever mesh together as one whole story very convincingly. The first thing you've got is the parody of
"American Idol" with Hugh Grant as the prickish and abusive host and Mandy Moore as the corn-fed Midwest beauty with asperations of being a star. Both actors can nail those roles, and they do, though they're types both have played before. But to do a parody of reality television at this point is fruitless. It makes fun of itself just fine. There's no dimension you can add or illuminate that will make your parody even as amusing as the actual target is by itself. At least, there's nothing the makers of
American Dreamz can find.
The second element is Dennis Quaid as a clueless American President with supposedly folksy out-of-it charm who doesn't read the newspapers and is essentially controlled by his puppetmaster behind-the-scenes advisor, played by Willem Dafoe, who tells him exactly what to say and what he thinks about every and any subject. This is midly amusing for the first ten minutes or so, but goes no deeper or darker. Quaid's President is only a good-hearted rube led astray by men who think they know what's right. But what that
is or its consequences aren't even touched, much less examined. It has less bite than the mildest night of
"The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart" and absolutely no perspective of any kind. For his part, Quaid gives an amusing performance and he is the source of most of the few laughs to be found in the movie, but there's simply no there there.
The third plot element is Omer (Sam Golzari), a young Muslim man who would rather sing showtunes in his tent during his terrorist training, even though an American bomb has killed his family. Seeing he is more interested in song and dance than revenge and explosives, he is basically excused and he moves to Los Angeles to live with his completely Americanized Aunt (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and her family in their well-to-do Beverly Hills mansion. A few more mild and easy laughs are sqeezed from the inital culture shock as he adjusts especially to his flamboyantly gay cousin who is about his same age, but once Omer becomes an unlikely contestant on the
"American Dreamz" show, the laughs are pretty much done for him, though Golzari does have good energy and commits to the role.
The three plotlines are merged when the doofus and sheltered President is made a guest judge on the show, in a desperate effort to boost his public appeal, and the terrorists recontact Omer so he may attempt an assassination on live television. Ugh. Had the plot been darker, more subversive and had three drops of wit about it, this all might have made for a passingly decent but not hysterical eight-minute sketch on
"MadTV". As a feature film it is hollow, strained and not very funny.
The only bit of satire that comes even close to working is the subplot about Mandy Moore's boyfriend, played by Chris Klein, who is jilted by her as she gets her initial burst of fame, becomes depressed and joins the Army, is immediately sent to Iraq and just as immediately wounded and sent home. Mandy, her new publicist (
"SNL"'s Seth Meyers) and Hugh Grant's character are happy to cynically exploit the wounded G.I. for all he's worth for ratings. That this storyline is the best bit in the entire film should tell you how big a misfire it is as a whole.
I do give it a couple points for going through with its explosive finale without totally copping out, but by then it is a lost cause and the pity extra credit for having the kind of darkness and bravery that should have been filling the entire film doesn't exactly leave a good taste in your cinematic mouth. Writer/director Paul Weitz (
About A Boy, In Good Company, American Pie) has simply bitten off more than he can chew. It's well cast and the actors all do fine, but they're simply stuck with flat, obvious and witless material. This is one to wait and catch on Comedy Central a year and a half from now...where you'll still be disappointed.
GRADE: C-
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, last film i properly saw in the cinema was Hostel last saturday 
