With the US Presidential election season approaching, the time seems right for a sharp, cutting political satire. The Campaign, unfortunately, is not that film. What it is is a muddled vehicle for US comedy behemoths Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. The two play very different Congressional candidates: Ferrell the Clinton-esque politician who gets in trouble for sending pictures of his genitals to his mistress via Twitter. Galifianakis a camp, naïve family man who is pushed into the political race by the heads of a shady corporation (played, in a highlight, by Dan Akroyd and John Lithgow) who want to control him.

While the film’s subject matter does carry shades of prescience about the overbearing corporate presence in American politics, the fact that the film uses such broad strokes softens its satirical blows. So too do the gloopy attempts at sincerity that dominate the third act. It’s strange that a film with subject matter so ripe for ridiculousness should dollop out such syrupy, over-familiar attempts at emotional poignancy, consistently descending into cliché.

The film does have flashes of comedy gold (one gag, involving the dog from The Artist, is borderline genius) but even the strongest scenes end up falling flat. Director Jay Roach displays little in the way of directorial finesse as scenarios are left to blur into each other, few leaving any comedic impact. You get the feeling while watching that a more surreal approach, à la Ferrell’s excellent Anchorman, could have resulted in a hilarious send-up of the more ridiculous aspects of American politics. As it is, we’re left with a rather bland comedy which isn’t silly enough to be a classic Ferrell romp and isn’t witty enough to aspire to Iannucci-esque satire.

Sean Hayes