Irresistible (2020 Film)

Irresistible is a 2020 political comedy written and directed by Jon Stewart. It starts Steve Carrell as the lead Gary Zimmer, as well as Chris Cooper, Topher Grace, and Mackenzie Davis.

**This page needs visual enhancement.**
You can help All The Tropes by finding a high-quality image or video to illustrate the topic of this page.

Gary is a political spin agent for Democrats; his ex Faith Brewster does the same for Republicans. After a depressing election year aa 2016, he becomes inspired on seeing a viral video of an everyman named Jack Hastings, a farmer and veteran who speaks out against a conservative mayoral candidate in his hometown Deerlaken, based in Wisconsin. Gary knows that Democrats need a viable stream of everyman candidates to win, and flies to Deerlaken to convince Jack to go into politics. Jack at first demurs because of the farm duties, his desire for a quiet life and that he's not a naturally gifted speaker. After talking with his daughter Diana, Jack agrees to run, if Gary becomes his campaign manager.

Now that Jack's on board, Gary thinks he has this campaign in the bag. Should be easy enough to elect an American hero to a mayor position. Only problem: the RNC gets wind of this and sends Faith to support incumbent Mayor Braun. The battle becomes personal, as Gary prepares to fight dirty to save Jack's campaign, much to Diana's dismay.

The movie's release was delayed but eventually came out to a series of limited theaters as well as Premium VOD.

Tropes used in Irresistible (2020 Film) include:

Big Brother Instinct: Mayor Braun kept his little brother Ziggy from going to jail for oxycontin abuse. Morally ambiguous but very sweet of him. When Gary gets his hands on this information and Diana warns the mayor, Braun feeds a false story to the press about having a love-child to keep Ziggy out of the spotlight that would disgrace and break him.
Bittersweet Ending: For Gary, he's not thrilled that he was used to help pour funds into Deerlaken that the town needed to save the local school and military base. He also isn't thrilled when Diana points out of course she wasn't attracted to him, he's thirty years older than her so that would be icky. With that said, he is impressed and keeps his job in D.C.. The real ending shows that he and Faith are sleeping together, and slowly mending ties despite being political opposites.
Both Sides Have a Point: At the end, Gary and Diana have this. Gary rightly points out that Diana lied to him and used him to pour money into the town. Diana retorts that campaign managers do this all the time, rolling into town and leaving the citizens with nothing. Sure it wasn't nice and it was lying, but this way her fellow citizens benefited.
Dream Within a Dream: Comes up at the end of the movie. It seems that after Diana is elected mayor, she and Gary hook up. Gary then wakes up sleeping next to the bakery lady. Then it's revealed he is daydreaming while sleeping with Faith. This ends up being the real ending.
Earn Your Happy Ending: For Diana, this plays out by the end. It comes out that the election was Diana's plan to save the town with the campaign contributions pouring in, and she gets elected mayor in lieu of Jack or Mayor Braun after they pull some strings. Gary admits from a distance that he's proud of her.
The Ending Changes Everything: Turns out that the rivalry between Mayor Braun and Jack was made up; Braun is actually not a conservative asshole. Diana cooked up the scheme to get both Republicans and Democrats to poor money into Deerlaken. Gary and Faith were played for patsies.
Foreshadowing: The local bakery lady keeps pressing sweets into Gary's hands, refusing payment despite his insistence. She was in on the plot to bring in campaign money. Making Gary happy with baked goods and streusel was her job.
Graceful Loser:
- Faith is slimy, catty and manipulative; she admits that the took up the call to arms to help Mayor Braun to spite her ex Gary. She is also amused when learning that the town used her and Gary to get necessary funds and shows respect for Diana's audacity.
- While Gary isn't thrilled to learn that he was played for a patsy, he also eventually adopts this attitude.
He Who Fights Monsters: Discussed by Gary and Diana when he considers leaking a scandal about Mayor Braun's brother Ziggy. Gary points out that the RNC would do the same to Jack if the roles were reversed. Diana asks if the campaign is worth it if it means hurting an innocent man, because she knows Ziggy and it was a personal affair between the brothers.
Obfuscating Stupidity: It comes out that everyone in town pretended ot be ignorant so as to lure Gary into a false sense of security.
Once More, with Clarity: The movie starts with a viral video of Jack calling out Mayor Braun for his anti-immigrant attitude. At the end, it's revealed that Diana staged it. They had to do multiple takes because Jack wasn't lying when he said he wasn't a naturally gifted speaker.
Relative Error: Invoked by the mayor. He feeds Gary a story that he has an illegitimate child. The news finds out with some mortification that the child was his niece.
Was It All a Lie?: Gary soberly asks Diana this at the end of the movie. He says that he thought they had developed a connection. She has to point out she's 28 and he's in his fifties. There was nothing there with that kind of age gap.