Film review: 'Man With a Plan'
New Englanders are a proud, self-possessed lot, and it's no surprise that "Man With a Plan", John O'Brien's "mockumentary" about an elderly Vermont dairy farmer's quixotic quest to be elected to Congress, is one of the more successful films in Vermont's art-house history. (It outgrossed "Sense and Sensibility" in Burlington.)
Big cities are another matter, and the folksy charms of this gentle satire are likely to be lost in the shuffle. With canny timing, has just opened at New York's Cinema Village theater, just in time for Election Day.
O'Brien, whose previous effort was the well-received "Vermont Is for Lovers", has once again enlisted friends and neighbors to help him make a film. This one centers around a real-life 73-year-old arthritic farmer named Fred Tuttle, a folksy gent who, as septuagenarians go, is utterly adorable. The premise here has him running for Congress against a six-time incumbent (played by actual former Vermont Congressman William Blachly) who is so popular he is actually running on both parties' tickets. Fred's decision to run is more than a little pragmatic; his father is due for an expensive hip replacement, the farm is failing, and he needs to find a job that requires minimal qualifications. His credo: "If the people lead, I'll follow."
The film has a certain low-budget folksy charm for a while, but eventually the concept wears thin, with O'Brien failing to provide the genuine wit required to lift the project to the next level. The idea of political satire represented here is to have a scandal involving Fred's acceptance of PAC money, which turns out to come from a Cub Scout group. Or to have his unscrupulous opponent attempt to get pictures of Fred participating in an "orgy," with predictably disastrous results. Too often, the director attempts to employ visual humor, while lacking both the budget and the technique to pull it off.
Still, it's hard not to be amused by Fred and the many real-life participants in the film, and the entire enterprise is conducted with such genial good humor that only a curmudgeon would fail to be periodically amused. Fred does get elected -- "The people called collect, and I accepted the charges," he proclaims -- and the sight of him walking around Washington, settling down by the Lincoln Memorial to quietly study the federal budget, is priceless.
MAN WITH A PLAN
A Bellwether Films production
Director-screenwriter-editor-producer
John O'Brien
Associate producers Richard Morse,
Molly O'Brien, Jack Rowell
Cinematography Richard Morse, John O'Brien
Cast: Fred Tuttle, Bill Blachly, Joe Tuttle, Bryan Pfeiffer, Bruce Lyndes, William Sloane Coffin
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Big cities are another matter, and the folksy charms of this gentle satire are likely to be lost in the shuffle. With canny timing, has just opened at New York's Cinema Village theater, just in time for Election Day.
O'Brien, whose previous effort was the well-received "Vermont Is for Lovers", has once again enlisted friends and neighbors to help him make a film. This one centers around a real-life 73-year-old arthritic farmer named Fred Tuttle, a folksy gent who, as septuagenarians go, is utterly adorable. The premise here has him running for Congress against a six-time incumbent (played by actual former Vermont Congressman William Blachly) who is so popular he is actually running on both parties' tickets. Fred's decision to run is more than a little pragmatic; his father is due for an expensive hip replacement, the farm is failing, and he needs to find a job that requires minimal qualifications. His credo: "If the people lead, I'll follow."
The film has a certain low-budget folksy charm for a while, but eventually the concept wears thin, with O'Brien failing to provide the genuine wit required to lift the project to the next level. The idea of political satire represented here is to have a scandal involving Fred's acceptance of PAC money, which turns out to come from a Cub Scout group. Or to have his unscrupulous opponent attempt to get pictures of Fred participating in an "orgy," with predictably disastrous results. Too often, the director attempts to employ visual humor, while lacking both the budget and the technique to pull it off.
Still, it's hard not to be amused by Fred and the many real-life participants in the film, and the entire enterprise is conducted with such genial good humor that only a curmudgeon would fail to be periodically amused. Fred does get elected -- "The people called collect, and I accepted the charges," he proclaims -- and the sight of him walking around Washington, settling down by the Lincoln Memorial to quietly study the federal budget, is priceless.
MAN WITH A PLAN
A Bellwether Films production
Director-screenwriter-editor-producer
John O'Brien
Associate producers Richard Morse,
Molly O'Brien, Jack Rowell
Cinematography Richard Morse, John O'Brien
Cast: Fred Tuttle, Bill Blachly, Joe Tuttle, Bryan Pfeiffer, Bruce Lyndes, William Sloane Coffin
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 04/11/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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