Almost There: Reese Witherspoon in "Election"
Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 1:00PM 
A few weeks ago, we asked you to vote on what performances should be analyzed on the Almost There series. While Myrna Loy in Test Pilot won the poll of 1938 specific titles, John Cazale's supporting turn in Dog Day Afternoon was your pick from a selection of new to streaming titles. But your runner-up choices will also get their chance to shine. Cazale won, but Reese Witherspoon's iconic performance as Tracy Flick in Election was close behind…
Adapted from a novel by Tom Perrotta, Election is a black comedy about a high school student body government in Omaha, Nebraska. The movie's perspective, expressed in voice-over narration, oscillates between those of the presidential candidates and the civics teacher organizing the event, the loathsome Jim McAllister who holds a grudge against Tracy Flick. She's one of his students and presidential candidates, an overambitious young woman whose every word rubs Jim the wrong way. The teacher also blames her for the firing of Dave Novotny, a fellow pedagogue and Jim's best friend, who lost his job after a sexual relationship with Tracy was uncovered.
Looking back at Election, it's eerie how some of its acidic political observations make even more sense now than in the late 90s. In its perverse story of adult pettiness and power-grabbing youths, it delineates how virulent sexism affects the electoral act and the way people lean towards populism as a reaction. Not that the movie in itself is kind or empathetic towards Tracy. More than anything, Alexander Payne presents his female lead as an intrinsically bad person even though the actions taken against her by Jim are also portrayed negatively. Perhaps I'm projecting due to my dislike of the director, but there's important imprecision in the way Election negotiates its POV that ends up hurting whatever canny observations it's trying to make.
Despite Tracy and two other candidates getting chances to narrate their own story, it's Jim's voice that shapes the picture. This makes the incongruences of sympathy with which Payne portrays the man all the more crippling for the overall movie. All that being said, we're not here to review or litigate the value of Election but to analyze the performance of its famous leading lady. If anything, Reese Witherspoon's star turn as Tracy Flick brings with it a clear-headedness lacking in other aspects of the film. The script and form might not know what they want to say about this young woman, but we never doubt that Witherspoon knows Tracy Flick, in and out.
It's especially admirable how the actress keeps underlining the fact that Tracy's a kid, never letting us forget that this political maverick is, in essence, still growing up. We meet Tracy's methodic gestures before we ever see her face, a robotic preciseness to every movement. However, when the camera shows her entire body, Witherspoon's petite stature stands out. She's dangling her legs like a child, still too short for the school chair. It's a smart hint of restlessness, of too much energy contained within a body that's still developing, a nervous tick that counterbalances the stiff exactitude shown before. Whatever Jim might say, Tracy's a teenager, not some Washington big-head out for blood. Not yet, at least.
Throughout the entire film, Witherspoon keeps playing these two facets of Tracy Flick – the personification of abrasive female ambition, and a girl continuously victimized by the adults in her life. The actress's brilliant at weaving softness in between the caricature exaggeration. Notice how she acts in the flashbacks to the "affair" between Tracy and Dave, revealing rare vulnerability. Even as the character tries to avoid painting herself as a victim in the narration, Witherspoon's delicate silent reactions contrast cruelly with those assertions. She makes evident how much Tracy isn't in control of the situation.
The entire scene of the first sexual encounter between student and teacher is beyond uncomfortable, mostly due to the actress and how she highlights the perverse power dynamics. Her tentative walk towards the bedroom is heartbreaking in its self-conscious reticence as is the unsure manner in which she takes a sip of what is probably her first beer. Later on, we see other glimpses of this side of Tracy when she loses control and is made painfully aware of it.
Think of the panicked calculations going on in Witherspoon's frozen face after Tracy rips the posters in a tantrum. Another example's her imploding expression upon the moment of unlawful defeat. That last one is some of the best acting in the performer's entire career. Tracy's smile crumbles into ruins of disillusion and then, without ever cutting away, we get to witness the prompt erection of an apathetic façade to cover the rubble of her broken dreams.
None of that's to say that Witherspoon's Tracy is a wilting flower or some sort of damsel in distress.
The actress may humanize the caricature, but she doesn't sand off any sharp edges. There's an impetuous assertiveness to nearly every one of her line readings, a bullish intensity that can come off as confidence or overcompensation. Then, when she's angry, Witherspoon's incandescent, nostrils flaring and eyes shining like deadly lasers. Better yet, she makes all of this ugliness into comedy, managing to turn even the horrifying scene where she says "fuck me" straight at the camera into hilarity. Her glee's always too much, her fury burns and her despondence goes to such extremes that it becomes funny.
Witherspoon got a Golden Globe nomination for her efforts, as well as a Spirit Awards nod and NFSC win. Along with those honors, she was also recognized by several regional critics' groups, both with victories and nominations. In the end though, despite Election getting into the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race, Witherspoon wasn't nominated. Instead, AMPAS chose Annette Bening in American Beauty, Janet McTeer in Tumbleweeds, Julianne Moore in The End of the Affair, Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, and Meryl Streep in Music of the Heart. Swank would end up winning for her turn as Brandon Teena, while Witherspoon had to wait until 2005 for her little golden man when she won for Walk the Line. Would you pick Flick above any of the actual 1999 Oscar nominees?
Election is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Roku, and HBO Max.
Reader Comments (27)
I think this is probably Witherspoon’s finest performance to date (Season 1 of Big Little Lies notwithstanding) and it pains me that the film was on voters’ radars but she missed.
I’d also like to add Ryder in Girl, Interrupted to the above - her finest work full stop yet Jolie seemingly sucked all oxygen from the conversation.
I’d drop McTeer, Moore and Streep to make room for these plus Cecilia Roth.
Swank still wins.
Still my favorite Reese performance. And yes she deserved to be nominated over Streep.
I love Streep in Music of the Heart, but not so much that I would have denied Reese this nod. Then again, if you replaced Bening with Reese, I would not complain either. I hate that performance.
Very good piece, not as good as the Cazale one so good voting readers!
I'm mainly here for any Madeline > Mary Louise talk (I'm still not over the Big Little Lies season 2 awards show neglect), but, yes, as much as I love the message of arts education funding, I would place Witherspoon's performance over Streep's, as well as McTeer's, Moore's, and Bening's (Big Little Lies also captured wealthy white suburban life better than American Beauty did).
I remember my first time seeing this picture so vividly. The theater and everything. we were laughing so hard throughout and than the audience just kind of wasn't with it. A similar thing happened with I Heart Huckabees (at the same theater!)
REESE so deserved that Oscar nomination. But she was brilliant from the start.
Streep's inclusion sullies the 72nd lead actress lineup.
I would have booted Streep and Bening for Witherspoon.
Moore deserved the nod. Swank deserved the win.
I'm not sure how it would have affected her career, given that she was so young, but I think Reese deserved to win the Oscar for Election. And though Swank is very good, this performance has more cultural resonance today than any of the nominees.
Tracy Flick is a horrible creature (sadly recognizable in many of the pond scum that surrounds the orange Bunker Boy), as is almost everyone else in the movie, and while Reese never tries to make her less than that she shows the many layers to the girl.
She was absolutely robbed of a rightful spot in the nominations. The performances nominated weren't bad but only two were of equal weight to hers so I'd cut Meryl, Julianne and Janet McTeer and add Reese, Diane Lane in A Walk on the Moon and Frances O'Connor in Mansfield Park. With that line-up I'd be very torn between Reese and Hilary for the win though I'd go with Swank.
Absolutely, over Meryl. Reese was spectacular in this.
Definitely one of Reese's great performance and yes, she should've been nominated and I would've also vouched for Cecilia Roth for All About My Mother and Emile Dequenne for Rosetta.
I am torn cause all my nominees are doing some of their best and in off kilter non traditional Oscar work and the lucky 5,who do you pick.
Swank
Winslet
Weaver
Witherspoon
Bening
Not a huge Witherspoon fan but I give credit where credit is due; she's phenomenal in "Election" ( as she is in "Legally Blonde" "Wild" and "BLL" ) although I don't agree with her Oscar winning turn in "Walk the Line" not when Huffman, Theron, Paltrow, and Bello all gave far superior performances; Agree that the 2000 Oscar line-up should''ve included Witherspoon instead of Streep ( Music of the Heart is just average and Meryl is just serviceable) also Cecilia Roth instead of McTeer, now that would've been a killer line-up :
Bening
Moore
Roth
Swank (winner)
Witherspoon.
Streep herself was probably shocked she was nominated for Music of the Heart. I would have voted for Reese for Election, and Meryl could happily sit this one out.
Witherspoon deserved a nomination more than Meryl Streep. I don't even know why Meryl was nominated for a forgettable performance and a forgettable movie.
Election is a great film, definitely underrated. Witherspoon is phenomenal is this, her best performance. Iconic.
Reese is brilliant in ELECTION and absolutely should have been nominated and would’ve been a great win. (My Best Actress winner that year is Cecilia Roth for ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER).
Reese’s best performance to date is in FREEWAY. And my favourite is as Elle Woods in LEGALLY BLONDE.
My top 5 favorite Actress Performances in 1999 would go like this:
Hillary Swank - Boys Don't Cry
Reese Witherspoon - Election
Melora Walters - Magnolia
Cecilia Roth - All About my Mother
Franka Potente - Run Lola Run
Honorable Mentions: Sarah Polley - Guinereve, Thora Birch - American Beauty
Most Watchable - Juliette Lewis - The Other Sister, Jennifer Jason Leigh - Existenz, Sarah Polley - Go, Kirsten Dunst - Dick
I think there's an agreement on Streep, she didn't deserve the nod.
My top 5
1.Swank
2.Roth
3.Bening
4.Moore
5.Whiterspoon
my favourite tracy flick moment is when, after being let off the hook by tammy's false confession, her fear instantly evaporates and she angrily buys into tammy's story: you're going to pay for those posters!
reese should've least won the golden globe
Love Reese in this so much.
I think we can mostly agree that 1999 was a really good year for movies but the Best Actress Oscar category and most esp the Best Picture category mostly failed to reflect this. Election is so good and Reese W is iconic!
I disagree that Alexander Payne (a director I'm also ambivalent towards) presents Tracy as an intrinsically bad person. She's quite clearly one of the film's more sympathetic characters, and whilst I think a lot of that is due to Reese's performance I do think a lot of that is in the screenplay too. The narration about how 'barely anybody' signed her yearbook always really stuck in my head, even if we get that sort of humorously cruel intercut of Jim pricing up canned goods at a supermarket.
Great work as always, though I sense I (and most of the commenters) liked the film a lot more than you did. :)
I still do, though I think I would view it (and Tracy) very differently now than when I first saw the movie, or even the last time I saw it. I really disliked Tracy the first time (even as I found Witherspoon's performance hilarious), less so as the years went on, but now I bet I'd find her actively sympathetic. Conversely, while I've always found Jim contemptible (and his friend a total creeper), I also had a sneaking sympathy for his dislike for Tracy. I was never sure whether Payne intended that or not, since he seemed to me to have little sympathy for anyone other than maybe the "third party" lesbian character. But you and ben1283 make a good case that the movie displays more compassion towards Tracy than might be initially apparent.
kermit_the_frog -- The only person I'd nominate from the Oscar lineup is Swank.
melvel and many others -- Agreed, though I'll always have a spot for MUSIC FROM THE HEART. It's one of the first Streep movies I ever watched since it was shown by a teacher in class when I was very young.
Tuco -- As someone who's not very fond of Payne's cinema, I certainly enjoyed writing the Cazale piece more than this one.
jules -- It's always fascinating to ponder how a different Oscar fate might have changed an actor's career. It's weird to imagine Witherspoon doing things like LEGALLY BLOND right after a victory in 1999, even though I think she's brilliant as Elle Woods. One wonders if she might've become more of an awards season mainstay.
Roger -- I've never watched FREEWAY, but I'm thankful for your recommendation.
par -- That's a great moment. She goes from animal panic to performative righteousness at the drop of a hat.
Rob -- That 1999 Best Picture lineup is tragic, indeed.
ben1283 -- I do think the screenplay goes out of its way to show Tracy's worst facets, like her belief in her superior strength and manifest destiny. However, I'm fine with the script and believe it does present her as a tridimensional person, even if its POV is troublingly imprecise.
However, I do think that Payne frames Tracy in rather grotesque ways that promote the audience's antipathy in ways he never does to Jim or even Paul - those freeze frames are abhorrent. You mention the passage about the yearbook but the way it's presented always felt as if the filmmakers wanted me to feel a sense of punitive justice -- a "she got the power, but she's alone just as she deserves" sort of thing.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but rewatching ELECTION, I couldn't help but feel a virulent contempt towards Tracy from the movie itself. It's as if Jim's a flawed person still deserving of understanding, but Tracy is this unjustly maligned girl who's nonetheless bound to grow up into a greater evil than her teacher. In some ways, I can see some ugly truth in that, but that still doesn't endear me to the picture.
Lynn Lee -- Thank you for the kind words. As previously stated, I like the film but have a lot of issues with it. I think it's a valuable piece of political satire that's a tad overrated nonetheless. Like you, my opinion on it has changed a lot over the years. I used to admire it a lot while also feeling more antagonistic towards Tracy than I do presently.
Thank you all for the feedback. Hope you liked this one since you voted for it :)
I always felt Benning should have been a supporting nod ?!
Lovely piece ! And yes to Reese spot in the top 5. Hillary & Celia for sure