It's hard to see what the big fuss about Election is. For a dark comedy, it just wasn't that funny. It came across as somewhat annoying, and even though it was relatively short, there were some stretches of it that seemed to take a very long time.

Reese Witherspoon is Tracey Flick, the high school overachiever. You know, the one at every school, who gets great grades and is involved in anything and everything imaginable, and if she can help it, in charge. She has set her sights on the position of Student Council President, something that teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is vehemently opposed to. Unfortunately, no one is brave enough to challenge Tracey, so its up to McAllister to come up with a plan to foil her. He enlists naive jock Chris Klein to run against her. The rest of the movie details Tracey's schemes as she tries to win the election.

Looking back on the movie, it sure seemed to have promise. It was apparently adapted from a book. There's one book I probably won't read for a while. The movie seems to include irrelevant points that were probably put in for laughs and to show how quirky the people in the high school were, but they end up mostly as filler, and boring. Watching Doris Allen and Scott Baugh was much more enjoyable, and infinitely funnier. Plot points show up, mainly for comedy, but again, aren't funny, and just seem to make the movie longer.

Reese Witherspoon is a promising actress, and this movie probably won't hurt her. Especially since many critics enjoyed it much more than we did. Broderick's abilities seem more uneven. He can do amazing things with roles, but that didn't really happen here. Chris Klein did a great job as the dumb jock with the heart of gold. His next film is summer raunch fest American Pie.