PREMIERE.COM'S MOVIE REVIEW (posted 9/14/06)

Had Al Franken: God Spoke — the story of the former Saturday Night Live funnyman's transformation from comedian to possible Senatorial candidate — been made as a traditional biopic instead of a documentary, the film would almost certainly contain a scene in which the title character experiences a transformative moment that convinces him to abandon one career path for another. For better or worse though, change happens more gradually in real life than it does in reel life. In Franken's case, it took him almost four years to realize that politics had become more than just a hobby or a source for new material.

Back in 2002, the comic's primary involvement in the political sphere was as a celebrity campaigner for outspoken Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone (who died suddenly in a plane crash later that year). By the end of 2005, however, Franken had authored two best-selling indictments of the right wing, hit the campaign trail for John Kerry, and anchored a daily talk show on the liberal radio network Air America. He also regularly made noises about moving back to Minnesota (although he's a New Yorker by birth, Franken spent his formative years in ‘The Land of 10,000 Lakes') and running for Wellstone's Senate seat, currently occupied by Republican Norm Coleman. During this period, he was shadowed by documentarians Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob, whose cameras recorded their subject on the road, in the studio, and publicly debating such conservative adversaries as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter. Now they've assembled that footage into a zippy 90-minute feature that should entertain the Franken faithful. But the movie never gets around to answering its central question: namely, why has Mr. Franken decided to go to Washington?

In retrospect, it's very likely that Wellstone's sudden death was that elusive transformative moment for Franken, although he never comes out and says that directly. Come to think of it, he never really says anything directly. Hegedus and Doob are working in classic verité style here, which means no talking heads or leading questions lobbed at your subject. That's all well and good, but the "star" still has to engage us in some way, even if it's only with thinly veiled contempt (as Bob Dylan did in the landmark 1967 doc Don't Look Back, directed by Hegedus' husband D.A. Pennebaker). Throughout the film, Franken comes across as personable and, at times, passionate, but also curiously remote. It doesn't help that we're rarely witness to his more private moments; the bulk of the movie finds him out and about, speaking in front of packed auditoriums or navigating his way around the Republican National Convention.

After awhile, God Spoke starts to resemble a highlights reel of Franken's best public appearances, which is amusing without being enlightening. It's great that the comedian felt the call of a higher office, but it's a call that apparently only he can hear.

— Ethan Alter