No one comes out of “Election” unscathed. Poor Mr. McAllister, who would seem to be the voice of morality, is willing to betray all the principles of democracy–not to mention his marriage vows–in his increasingly unhinged efforts to stop the Flick juggernaut. Director Payne, who adapted Tom Perrotta’s novel with Jim Taylor, has an authentically dire view of human behavior, which he expresses in crisp, edgy and sometimes startlingly raunchy style. The comedy may not resonate as deeply as the well-named Payne intends, but between Witherspoon’s exuberant solipsism and Broderick’s talent for absorbing massive humiliation, the chuckles keep coming like poisoned darts.
