Verdict: Seemingly simple satire has a lot going on underneath the surface.

Details: Starring Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, and Thora Birch. Directed by Alexander Payne. Rated R.

Review: Think back a moment — all the way to high school. There was always one of 'em: the overachiever obsessed with student government, the guy or girl who felt as if winning the student-body presidency would hand them the world.

Be assured: They were nothing compared to Tracy Flick.

Tracy (Reese Witherspoon) is a highly motivated — and dangerously cute — student at George Washington Carver High in Omaha. She's the attractive female equivalent of Max in "Rushmore" — a joiner who wants so desperately to lead that she has become a sad caricature.

Just the kind of student that gets under Jim McAllister's skin. Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick), a schlumpy social studies teacher, doesn't like Tracy's ambition and gradually grows determined to do something about it.

So when Tracy's election as student government president appears at hand, chiefly because she's unopposed (and still campaigning fiercely), McAllister gets involved. He recruits Paul Metzler (Chris Klein), a well-meaning jock, to run against her.

Things unravel from there. Paul's sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), gets involved in the election — with the aim of abolishing student government. Romances and other entanglements make things complicated for both Tracy and Mr. McAllister. And "Election" inches painfully toward its quietly harrowing conclusion.

Filmed with unsettling block camerawork and peppered with narration from many characters, "Election" at first has the feel of a simple work. But don't let that fool you; it's a complex, deep tale. The narrative devices and filmmaking techniques that director Alexander Payne uses only add to the through-the-looking-glass feel: This appears to be a normal high school, but unsettling things are happening beneath the surface. And Mr. McAllister really shouldn't be turning over the rocks.

Great things are in store for Witherspoon, who is a joy to watch on camera. Her blatant ambition and insolence, illustrated by flaring nostrils, icy stares and the occasional facial tic, are perfect.

Her Tracy is both despicable and pitiable, pushed by her mother like the political version of a teen-age figure-skating queen. When she falters, she cries into her stuffed animals and you feel guilty for ever thinking bad thoughts about her.

Broderick, so forgettable of late in "Godzilla" (where his best line was "That's a lotta fish"), is much more effective here. He's better on a smaller, subtler canvas, and his flip-flop between sad-sackery and determination to do the right thing rings true. He also has the fashion and demeanor of the high-school teacher down perfectly.

In the end, McAllister, through a sequence of events that perfectly match his transgressions, falls from grace and must begin a new life. This is the message of "Election": That wrongdoing done in the name of good is no better than plain, unbridled ambition.

And the road to that revelation is both entertaining and, in its Omaha ordinariness, quite frightening.

— Ted Anthony, Associated Press

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