The Dictator (R)

If for no other reason, you have to appreciate comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his commitment to staying in-character.  Best known to Americans for his Kazakh journalist creation, Borat Sagdiyev (the central character of the 2006 mockumentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of American for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”), Cohen impressed viewers with his ability to maintain his character in the face of extreme awkwardness and even threats of violence.  Cohen is also renowned for conducting promotional appearances and interviews for his films without ever breaking character.

After exhausting three successful characters over television and film (fast-talking chav Ali G, the aforementioned Borat, and flamboyantly-gay Austrian fashion journalist, Brüno), Cohen has finally moved away from the candid stunts of his previous films with the heavily-scripted effort, “The Dictator.”  While his penchant for cutting satire is occasionally evident, Cohen’s latest film represents a lame step backward from his prior, more provocative efforts.

In “The Dictator,” Cohen is Admiral General Aladeen, the titular despotic ruler of fictional North African nation, Wadiya. Aladeen’s appearance and mannerism are cribbed liberally from notorious Middle Eastern leaders like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.  The plot, such as it is, takes a page from the ongoing hand-wringing over Iranian nuclear enrichment.  Aladeen has been threatened with NATO airstrikes if he does not appear before the United Nations to denounce any bellicose intent, but when he arrives in New York, his right hand man tries to have him executed and replaced with a malleable double.  Aladeen escapes his would-be assassin, but is beardless and unrecognizable.  While trying to storm the UN to set things right, he runs into young activist Zoey (Anna Faris).  With her help, Aladeen is (sort of) able to temper some of his most unpleasantly autocratic impulses and secure a new future for his home country.

On the surface, “The Dictator” would seem to be timely enough, considering the great deal of media coverage devoted to the so-called “Arab Spring” movement throughout the Middle East.  Reminiscent of these news stories, late shots in the film are devoted to cheerful Wadiyan crowds in anticipating a new constitution and the introduction of democracy for their country.  Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much substance behind the parallels.  Not that a comedy necessarily should have a serious take on the events it parodies, but such statements have at least been implicit in Cohen’s previous films.  “Borat” and “Brüno” worked particularly well because they offered opportunities for bigots to candidly advertise their own foibles.  The idiots moviegoers mocked in those films deserved every bit of grief they received for their own racism and homophobia (though, admittedly, there are more than a few innocent victims of ridicule along the way).

In “The Dictator,” however, we see none of this.  The film does incorporate a few pointed jabs at typical American anti-Arab bigotry (one such scene involves a pudgy white couple mistaking an innocent conversation for threats of terrorism), but its scripted nature robs these moments of the intended impact.  Cohen does make a direct comparison between dictatorship and the modern American political landscape, in which a select few (thanks to biased media conglomerates, Citizens United, and warped wealth distribution) have a disturbingly disproportionate amount of control over governance.  While Cohen isn’t far off the mark here, this statement is disappointingly on-the-nose, compared to his usual subtlety.

Of course, not everything needs to convey a political message, and the film should be able to work on its comedic merits.  Unfortunately, it falls flat here as well.  Much of the humor is painfully tired, offering little more than unoriginal jokes and graying pop-culture references.  Most of the attempts at edginess feel like they might have been mildly shocking if the film had been released within a few years of 9/11, but cultural vultures with far fewer scruples have already exhausted that material.  Forgettable “Saturday Night Live” alumni, like Chris Parnell and Fred Armisen, abound, and if not for the notoriety that Cohen’s previous films garnered, this wouldn’t appear to be anything more than another SNL B-team direct-to-DVD snooze-fest.  Some gross-out gags would have seemed more at home in a Farrelly Brothers film, and the result is a muddle, directionless, unfunny mess.

It’s a shame that “The Dictator” is such a heap, because Sacha Baron Cohen is a bright guy and an eminently talented performer (watch him as Adolfo Pirelli in Tim Burton’s 2007 film adaptation of Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” and argue otherwise).  He’s just unfashionably late with the points he’s trying to make here.  Further, fans of his previous two films are likely to be sorely disappointed by the strictures of the scripted format, and the flagrant lack of verve “The Dictator” displays.  Cohen already has a few new projects lined up, including rumors of the lead in a Freddie Mercury biopic (a role he seems to have been born to play), so we’ll hopefully see him back in top form soon.

– by Demian Morrisroe