Most critics welcome Election as a dark, sharply written comedy that uses a high-school contest to examine American ambition, hypocrisy and political ethics. Praise clusters around Reese Witherspoon’s driven Tracy Flick and Matthew Broderick’s teacher, whose determination to stop her exposes his own failings. The reviews also value the screenplay’s ear for self-serving conversation and its willingness to find fault across the cast without making everyone equally contemptible.
The spread is wide, though the objections come chiefly from a lone strongly negative assessment rather than a broadly divided consensus. The Independent finds the comedy clever but shallow, with familiar targets, one-dimensional characters and too few laughs; Jessica Campbell’s performance offers it some relief. The Hollywood Reporter’s reservation is smaller: the pace falters towards the end. The central disagreement is over whether the characters’ self-delusions produce morally complex satire or merely another collection of easy targets.