The new Robin Williams vehicle BMan of the YearC could have been a biting satire on the current romance between comedy and politics, but instead ends up being a film that doesn?t really go anywhere philosophically interesting and offers up a run-of-the-mill plot.

Premise of the picture basically involves Robin Williams becoming president of the United States. However, if you cinematically elect Williams the president of our great nation, it would be nice to actually have some scenes where Mork from Ork is running the free world.

Instead the picture predominantly focuses on the campaign and the period of time before Williams gets into office 8 essentially avoiding what should have been a more compelling movie.

Here Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a comedian in the vein of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, whose show pokes fun at national lawmakers and current events. One day, upon the advice of an audience member, he decides to run for president 8 not expecting to win, of course.

Enter Eleanor (Laura Linney), here playing the engineer for a Silicon Valley company that makes the electronic voting machines used to elect the next president. The comedy then veers into romance/thriller territory as Linney discovers a bug in the system and decides to inform Dobbs of an inconvenient truth.

Linney is very good here, as she always is, but the romance in the film between her Eleanor and Williams? Dobbs felt a bit too forced and rushed for the sake of the e-voting plot angle. It didn?t feel natural.

I liked Tom Dobbs, but the character was more Robin Williams-light than the interesting characters he created in his recent filmography (see BOne Hour Photo,C BThe Night ListenerC). He is funny, though, and you are getting your money?s worth if you like Williams? brilliant and manic joke-a-minute schtick. The barbs are pretty funny here.

Despite the laughs, one thing that struck me early on was the lack of any sense of gravity or seriousness the Dobbs character has toward the presidency. When Robin Williams wins the White House and sits behind that famous desk in the Oval Office, it doesn?t feel authentic. It isn?t helped by the fact the movie isn?t really about Williams the funnyman candidate who actually talks sense in a debate. The core messages the picture hammers home is that special interests are bad and electronic voting machines are not a very good idea.

The movie can?t find harmony, because it can?t decide whether it wants to be a romantic comedy, a political satire or a dramatic thriller. You can have all of those elements in one film, but the tone of the film is all over the place. It feels like three separate movies. There?s no harmony.

It?s surprising that this film is helmed by comedic/dramatic director Barry Levinson (BDiner,C BRain ManC) who directed one of the better political comedies of all time with his 1997 feature BWag the Dog.C Personally, it would have been nice to see Williams actually spend some time in the film dealing with real issues and finding out that there?s more to politics than knock-em-dead one-liners.

Williams does entertain, but his best cinematic offerings are those that not only delve into the lighter side of life, but also the dark and the poignant. That?s what?s certainly missing here.

Two and a half stars out of four.

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompocrecord.com.