Hail to the chief

The Dictator
DIRECTED BY: Larry Charles
STARRING: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Anna Faris, John C. Reilly
CERT: 16

The early trailers for The Dictator didn’t look too promising. It looked like Sacha Baron Cohen might finally have lost his mojo, having struggled for big laughs in Bruno, his weak follow-up to the brilliant Borat.

 

But then Cohen went to the Oscars in Dictator character and spilled the ashes of his beloved friend and tennis doubles partner Kim Jong Il all over American Idol host Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet. Very funny stuff and suddenly it looked like the movie might hit the spot after all and so it does.

The Dictator is not as outright hilarious as Borat, mostly because Cohen has abandoned the documentary gimmick this time around, opting instead for a straight feature film, with real actors, a plot and a musical score that soars to the heavens at, well, certain crucial moments. So there are no scenes of hilarious offence or embarrassment involving unsuspecting real-life people on screen. Though that doesn’t stop Cohen, his fellow writers and director Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat) from going out of their way to offend just about everybody anyway. Race, religion, gender, politics, terrorism, and worse, vegetarianism, all take some well-placed hits.

To get the ball rolling, the film opens with a loving dedication to the late beloved Kim Jong Il. Cohen is General Admiral Haffaz Aladeen, supreme leader of the fictional North African country of Wadiya, a man so powerful he has had many important words changed to his own name, leading at times to great confusion.

Wadiya is mere months away from developing nuclear weapons, which Aladeen promises will be used strictly for medical purposes and never, ever, pointed in the direction of a neighbouring Jewish state. Which, to Aladeen, would seem impossible in any case, since the newly-minted missiles aren’t even pointy, a sin for which he has his leading scientist Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas) executed.

But despite his fondness for terror and an equal appetite for the bedroom favours of Hollywood superstars (his wall is decorated with Polaroids of Kim Kardashian, Oprah, and Arnold Scwarzenegger), Aladeen does have a soft side. Really, all he wants to do is cuddle. But his latest conquest, Megan Fox, can’t stay. She needs to be in Europe for a date with the Italian prime minister.

Aladeen’s right hand man Tahir (Kingsley) is the rightful heir to the Wadiyan throne and is plotting the dictator’s downfall. After the latest assassination attempt fails, Tahir recruits an idiot Aladeen lookalike Efawadh (Cohen again) and hopes to finally pull off the big coup while Aladeen visits New York to address the United Nations.

In the Big Apple, the supreme leader loses his beard in a great little scene with a straight-talking hotel manager (John C Reilly), who does a nice sideline in torture. Replaced by his clueless body double and locked out of the UN shindig, Aladeen wanders the streets and ends up in Little Wadiya, in the company of several men (and a cow) he was absolutely sure he had executed back home. These include his nuclear scientist Nadal, who takes his dreaded leader on a helicopter sightseeing tour, with hilarious results.

Aladeen also hooks up with Zoey (Faris), a young activist who runs an organic food store, employing an assortment of humanitarian refugees. Aladeen thinks this is cute. “I love it when women go to school,” he says. “It’s like seeing a monkey on roller skates,­ it means nothing to them, but it’s so adorable for us!”

Despite describing his new lady friend at various points as a vegan lesbian hobbit in a chemo wig, the dictator begins to fall for her charms. Not least, perhaps, because of one particular scene featuring soaring eagles, playful dolphins and the liberating triumph of a young Forrest Gump. Or maybe it’s the one where their hands touch while Aladeen, ­ once the self-appointed Surgeon General of Wadiya,­ delivers a baby on the floor of the shop.

These scenes, alright, most scenes to be honest, are not for the sensitive or the easily offended and there is some stuff here that really should be avoided by anyone with the remotest shred of taste and decency left in their souls. But I’m afraid that, apart from the occasional misfiring gag (the running joke with the Chinese minister is just bad, except for the surprising cameo), The Dictator is still the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long while.

My wife thought it was shocking but I think she was more shocked that I couldn’t stop laughing. It isn’t Cohen’s best work and he doesn’t need to be this vulgar to be funny. But even while indulging in his worst excesses, there’s a great intelligence at work in The Dictator, with social, cultural and political savvy that hits one of its high notes in a closing scene where Aladeen makes a speech recommending the excellent benefits of dictatorship. Its Charlie Chaplin’s rousing address from The Great Dictator turned on its head and all the better for it.

All said, The Dictator is absolutely Aladeen.