Everyone seems to have an opinion on “Janeane from Des Moines.”

Springfielders will have a chance to form their own views when director Grace Lee and actor Jane Edith Wilson, who plays the title character, bring the controversial election year film to Wittenberg University.

A screening is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in Koch Hall’s Kissell Auditorium, followed by a question-and-answer-session with the filmmaker and actor. Admission is free and parking is available behind Recitation Hall.

Ridiculed by some as pandering pablum, praised by others for Wilson’s convincing portrayal of the real-life problems of her fictional character, the central controversy involving the film is its form: Lee and Wilson used the Iowa Caucuses as the real life stage for the fictional drama.

Among those who make unwitting appearances are Republican Presidential Nominee Gov. Mitt Romney, who comforts a distraught Janeane; Michele Bachmann, who shares a cup of coffee with her; and Rick Santorum, who poses for a photo with Janeane beneath a tent.

Depending on one’s point of view, the appearances are evidence of Lee’s deceptiveness or of Wilson’s convincing performance as a conservative Iowa woman who seeks help from the candidates as her personal life begins to unravels.

The New York Times recently summarized the plot: “The topics include the Obama health care plan, Planned Parenthood and gay marriage, all of which the fictional Janeane fiercely opposes until her husband, Fred, loses his health insurance, she receives a diagnosis of breast cancer and Fred turns out to be gay.”

Conservative critics chide the film for how neatly the plot parallels the Democratic agenda. Along with news organizations that ran stories about what they thought was a real Janeane, they also criticize Lee of “punking” the real political process.

“This film makes Michael Moore look subtle,” said one critic at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Weighing in on the other side is Des Moines Register political columnist Kathie Obradovich, who herself unwittingly reported Janeane’s story as non-fiction.

Although reiterating that she was “disappointed by the deception” in Lee’s approach, after going to a screening last week, Obradovich wrote: “I have to admit, I liked the film. The focus is not really on the candidates, but on Janeane.”

Lee said that was her hope for the film.

“We never set out to make Janeane a caricature,” she said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

“Janeane is women I know, someone’s sister or aunt,” added the filmmaker who grew up in Missouri. There, she attended the University of Missouri with now Wittenberg University H.O. Hirt Professor of History Tammy Proctor, who invited Lee to come.

The director added that one of the actors, Wilson, is from Iowa and the actor’s empathy for Janeane “comes across in Jane’s performance.”

Lee, who has a master’s in fine arts from UCLA, said she set out to make a film that combined her two favorite forms, documentary and fiction, and chose the Iowa Caucuses, where candidates debut their political messages, as “the perfect setting for political theater.”

“One of the reasons we were motivated to do the project was sitting back and looking at the politics and the political circus unfold.”

She said Wilson seemed the right actor for the job because her background included traditional acting and improvisational comedy, which taught her the improvising skills needed to play Janeane.

Although reaction to the film has continued, the kind of contentious political discussions Lee said she dislikes, she said her purpose was to start a more genuine conversation.

Described by one critic as “set adrift by circumstances she could never have imagined,” Lee said what’s happening to the fictional Janeane “is undeniably happening to people.”

Lee said her hope is that “you bring your Uncle Ed or someone you disagree with” to see the movie “and talk about it together afterward,” focusing on Janeane’s predicament.

To columnist Obradovich that may be worthwhile.

“Even though (Janeane) is not real,” she said, “a lot of her problems are.”