Message?
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actscene3 — 13 years ago(July 09, 2012 10:20 PM)
The interesting thing about Paul was that he had already gone through a major identity shift. His skiing accident prevented him from playing football. We are told that he was a very good player, and with his talent he may have gone on to get a scholarship at college and achieve sporting greatness. Now that very small window was gone forever.
Because of his loss he had to go through some soul searching and introspection. He seemed to come out of it with that philosophical attitude that things just happen; he was obviously sad about it, but he dealt with it. He applied this attitude throughout the movie and during the election. -
kevdor — 15 years ago(November 07, 2010 08:47 PM)
Agreed, I hated the movie and was praying for something other then the typical clich obligatory happy ending where "good" wins and "bad" people are punished, but no, it had to be the clichand the "good" people werent even that good.. this is typical hyllowood bullcrap, that's not how life is, and yeah, Tracy was an annoying little nerdish b!tch and I really wished Mcallister (Broderick) would have had the intelligence to rip the 2 bulletins and put em in his pockets instead of the garbage can like an idiot, the second he did that I knew he had screwed up..
Again, a potentially good movie, even had me hooked up to it for most of the time, but they blew it all with the bs ending..
I see dumb people everywhere, and sometimes, they don't even know they're dumb! -
LionInWinter — 10 years ago(August 13, 2015 03:42 PM)
But he DIDN'T get a happy ending. He lies to himself that he's "blessed", when really he knows he's a loser and he still holds a grudge against Tracy (see: throwing his drink) and people more successful than him (as shown by the very ending where he won't pick the tryhard girl raising her hand). Sure, they could have made him more over the top miserable, but seeing him pretending that he got lucky after all, and that he "pities" Tracy was much harder to watch than the over the top "go work in the supermarket next to your pedo buddy" thing. It's also a lot more realistic.
I think this ending is much more unsettling, because of how realistically petty it is. If he'd died or gotten thrown in jail or something like that, it wouldn't have had anywhere near as much impact. I guess he could have ended up single, or with a slightly worse job, but this job and girlfriend perfectly show that his current life is just a worse version of his earlier one, yet he pretends that it isn't. Doesn't look like a happy ending to me. -
LionInWinter — 10 years ago(August 13, 2015 03:42 PM)
But he DIDN'T get a happy ending. He lies to himself that he's "blessed", when really he knows he's a loser and he still holds a grudge against Tracy (see: throwing his drink) and people more successful than him (as shown by the very ending where he won't pick the tryhard girl raising her hand). Sure, they could have made him more over the top miserable, but seeing him pretending that he got lucky after all, and that he "pities" Tracy was much harder to watch than the over the top "go work in the supermarket next to your pedo buddy" thing. It's also a lot more realistic.
I think this ending is much more unsettling, because of how realistically petty it is. If he'd died or gotten thrown in jail or something like that, it wouldn't have had anywhere near as much impact. I guess he could have ended up single, or with a slightly worse job, but this job and girlfriend perfectly show that his current life is just a worse version of his earlier one, yet he pretends that it isn't. Doesn't look like a happy ending to me. -
isisadore — 15 years ago(November 30, 2010 08:11 AM)
I don't think it shows her as the 'winner' because she's still a lonely overachiever, but I liked the ending that shows she worked hard and achieved her dreams.
I don't get all the Tracy hate, yeah she's annoying, but the worst thing she did was tear down Paul's posters, and even that wasn't malicious so much as lashing out due to stressher own poster came down and she just lost it. She's tightly wound but she's not a horrible person, she didn't lie or cheat to win the election, she got there early, baked 400 cupcakes, and waited in line to cast her vote.
I don't think the film was supposed to show Tracy as a bad person, she's just a lonely person who has nothing in her life besides ambition - no father, no friends, just hard work.
And I can't believe someone said she was "acting like a jerk" in the hallway when the ballots were being counted - it's somehow a jerk to be happy and jump up and down aloneit's not like she was screaming "in your face" to everyone, she was just really happy and she had the right to beif she was a jerk she wouldn't have been nice to Paul at the assembly when she thought she'd won.
I feel sympathy for TracyI feel nothing but disdain for Mr. M. -
catcherbloq — 14 years ago(September 06, 2011 12:05 AM)
Oh god, no. Tracy was a horrible, horrible person. She would sell anyone down the river to get herself ahead. She took advantage of her "youth" (why so many people believe that people are exempt from morality until they reach the magical age of 18 is beyond me) to deflect any of the blame for what happened to David, and worse, she allowed Tammy to take the fall for something she did and knew would cost her the election. I couldn't stand her. Sitting in Mr. M's shoes, I would probably have done the same thing; I would have just covered my tracks better.
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alphaboo — 13 years ago(June 15, 2012 03:03 AM)
That no one seems to notice that Jim is not a little man but someone who sees the dangers of the flicks of the world. She has cheated her way into government. Not banking, wall street or high power lawyer which would be bad enough but she is destined to be a member of the US government, She is not the person who has the good of the people at heart she has her good at heart. Would you want her to be your senator?
Jim saw that and attempted to mitigate that. Tracy comes across as a people pleaser but she is ruthless, first being offended that anyone would run agaisnt her then ripping down the poster. She wins by going to the school who fall her sweetness and light act and give her the election. Not a new vote which should have been done but crowned her king. She wins by minipulation.
In reality many seats in congress go unapossed and people like tracy count on this.
Jim may have taken the wrong approach but he was right. I sure don't want her in government.
To call him a little man with no ambtion assumes he is taking that out on tracy.
He may have been content in his life but saw the danger in tracy. Should he have looked the other way? Should we all look the other way and have a government of tracys?
Jim is a failed and flawed hero not a petty little man. Tracy is the danger -
nightwishouge — 9 years ago(April 26, 2016 01:57 PM)
How did Tracy "manipulate" her way into getting elected? Do you really think the disappearance of a few posters (covering one hallway exclusively; it's not like she tore down posters across the entire school)
the weekend before the election
really hurt Paul's chances that much? Hell, Tammy didn't have any posters up and she still got the most votes by a significant margin, based solely on her speech. I don't think the posters, or lack thereof, really made that much of a difference.
I'm not saying Tracy was a good person, but she won the election honestly: by campaigning. She didn't rig the voting or anything, apart from voting for herself, which wasn't against the rules. -
dla_one — 9 years ago(May 20, 2016 08:37 AM)
Of course you should always vote for yourself. And get every last friend and family member to vote for you. In such a small voting pool every vote can make a big difference. The fact that Paul didnt vote for himself, costing himself the election, is one of biggest comedic actions of the movie. He was such the affable good natured person that he couldnt bring himself to take a simple action, even
in private,
in his own interest. -
rmiikku — 13 years ago(July 19, 2012 12:46 PM)
I dont see Tracy becoming a huge winner. Nobody likes her and she is an idiot. I don't even understand why she was friends with those couple people she was friends with, what were they getting out of her, she didn't seem fun or interesting as a person. She didn't really step on people eighter, she just got too emotional and lost control, that's not a strength, it's weakness and she got lucky. Being calculating and framing people now that would be stepping on people. Making friends, using your friends to get ahead and also taking care of people who take care of you, playing politics, those are keys to success. Tracy is probably just going to work too hard and get something to show for it, but really not worth the effort, no one will remember her, no one will care about her, she should just get a life. She is naive, friendless, idiot useful for successful people.