Review

Rating:

Starring: Kevin Costner, Paula Patton, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper

Director: Joshua Michael Stern

Screenplay: Joshua Michael Stern, Jason Richman

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Release Date: August 1, 2008

Production House: Treehouse Films, 1821 Pictures, Radar Pictures

U.S. Distributor: Touchstone Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures 

Though gummy in its execution and faulted by its overly simplistic view of American partisan politics, Swing Vote, is in its heart, a story of redemption with a healthy dose of family love and bonding. What could be used (but ultimately shouldn’t even come close) as a cautionary tale of American ambivalence with its own political process, director Joshua Michael Stern (Neverwas) who co-wrote the film with Jason Richman (Bad Company and the upcoming Bangkok Dangerous), gives audiences a civics lesson while interweaving a rewarding (with a dollop of laughs) father/daughter relationship. With believable dialogue and excellent performances abound, Swing Vote –though not a home run– does manage to hit a left-field double. Now where’s the beer man?

Kevin Costner is "Bud" Johnson, an easy goin’, "below average" single father who eases the daily pain of working at a egg crating factory by drinking 27 rounds of suds at the local bar each night. Bud is not what you would call a "well educated man", not because of he’s stupid but because his life has been a huge downward spiral of pain, depression, and countless mistakes. His "everything" as he calls her, is his 12 year old daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll). A precocious Lisa Simpson type, who in the absence of a functional adult in the house, makes breakfast, sets out Bud’s clothes for the day, and even drives him home after he passes out during one of his many late-night stupors. Molly, the antithesis of Bud, is politically astute, smart, and wants more in life than smelling Budweiser fumes and picking up after her ne’er-do-well father. When asked by a local TV reporter (Paula Patton), who showcasing Molly and her school essay on the evening news, what she wants to do with her life, she replies, "Either a Veterinarian…or head of the Federal Reserve". Little Molly not only wants to end the cycle of American political ignorance but also the viscous cycle laid out by her drunk dad and AWOL mom. She doesn’t ask for much from her dad except for one thing. Vote. Tonight. On Election Night. Meanwhile, during these escapades is a very heated presidential race between Republican incumbent Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer) and the Democratic nominee, Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper). The two cardboard candidates have all the stereotypical party attributes attached. Boone, the conservative, is labeled as making "jingoistic platitudes" while his liberal counterpart wants to make the White House into a "rainbow house". As the votes pile in precinct by precinct, the nation waits (a remarkably short time) to learn the inhabitant of the Oval Office and, yeah, you guessed it –it’s a tie with one vote making the difference to millions of Americans and every freedom loving, pro-democratic man and woman all over the world. That vote, not being cast due to a technical mishap at the polling station, belongs to a very intoxicated Bud Johnson. God help us all. 

A never ending caravan of media trucks descend upon the little town of Texico, New Mexico with both candidates in tow, attempting to woo the country’s last voter. Each campaign, led respectively by weasley weasel-faces (Stanley Tucci for the GOP and Nathan Lane for the Dems), manipulate their candidates by changing their pillar positions according to each gust of Bud’s proverbial wind sock. The candidates tent pole policies bend and change by each given utterance from the nation’s most watched man. Is he pro-life? The Greenleaf campaign creates a hilarious ad centered on kids exploding into thin air with a pro-intelligent design policy. Doesn’t mind gay marriage? The GOP side creates a rainbow-flagged ad complete with a clearly uncomfortable President Boone. All the highly satirized ads provide the films funniest moments.

Swing Vote is clearly an unremarkable film about some highly ridiculous circumstances that creates more questions than any actual answers. What would be the national response (party constituents and otherwise) to the radical changes to each candidates policy? We see magazine cover after cover of Bud and his 15 minutes of fame but nary a single one of Boone and Greenleafs decaying support nationwide. What’s the popular vote? Where are the Veep candidates and doesn’t the president need congressional approval before creating a national wildlife preserve? A must needed suspension of disbelief aside (along with an out of place and highly manipulative scene between Molly and her mother), we find an authentic, honest movie about real (or at least Hollywood’s version of real) and decent people. Kevin Costner, who gets mislabeled as a hack more often than not, is great as Bud, the beer swillin ‘ every man but by far the standout is Madeline Carroll. She is terrific as the know-it-all upstart and doesn’t tread on being the bratty annoyance that the role could have easily slipped into. 

The movie is not a broadside polemic or a savage take on "red state" America. It’s just a simple movie about a guy and his mission to redeem himself in front of his daughter. Though it comes much too late in the film, it’s worth a peek.

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