‘America’ the horrible

 ‘Stealing America: Vote by Vote’
Director: Dorothy Fadiman
Stars: Peter Coyote
Genre: Documentary
Grade: 1 Globe

When a director is truly inspiring, imitators inevitably materialize. And if the copycats are not as skilled as their role model, their products can sully the genre that the director originally pioneered.

Such is the case with Dorothy Fadiman’s “Stealing America: Vote by Vote.” Although Fadiman is an Oscar-nominated documentary maker (for a film she made about abortion more than 15 years ago), her attempt at a biting conspiracy doc would have been better suited to the prodding hands of Michael Moore. But Fadiman’s approach is amateurish, boring and especially hard to believe — an obvious disservice to any conspiracy, which in this instance is that the Republicans rigged the 2004 elections for President Bush. It’s an interesting premise, and there are some arguments that might raise your eyebrows. That is, if you’re not already asleep.

The movie is simply a compilation of news reports from the 2004 election and after-the-fact talking heads, most of whom are from Ohio, where John Kerry might have scored a presidential victory had he not conceded. In between these discussions of electronic vote-switching and exit poll discrepancies, Peter Coyote (who is probably best known as the dad in “E.T.”) narrates over Documentary 101 graphics of blue states turning red as ominous music signals that evil has taken over the country. While viewers may or may not agree that evil has taken over the country, there are more creative ways of demonstrating this.

Two outlets that do this successfully are Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” both of which Fadiman uses gratuitously. And these comic elements are the only flashes of brilliance in the film. In one particularly biting moment, Ed Helms tells Jon Stewart that Bush is definitely going to be president again. “This is not a man who is going to let numbers stand in the way of moving America forward,” he says.

“Stealing America” is reminiscent of another news parody; in particular an Onion headline from 2002: “Americans Would Be Outraged If They Understood Enron Collapse.” But in this instance, it would be that Americans would be outraged if they weren’t bored to tears by this film.