Two stars. Rated R, for profanity and sexual candor
By Derrick Bang
This seems to be the season for transforming
well-regarded documentaries into starring vehicles for Hollywood A-listers.
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| Jane (Sandra Bullock) watches smugly as her candidate picks up steam in the upcoming Bolivian presidential election, which prompts rival campaign "fixer" Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton) to whisper another round of Sun Tzu-esque imprecations in her ear. |
But whereas Freeheld mostly retains the soul and warmth of its 2007 nonfiction
predecessor, while highlighting sensitive work from stars Julianne Moore and
Ellen Page, Our Brand Is Crisis is an
awkward, bewildering mess that benefits not at all from Sandra Bullock’s
presence.
She barely tries, falling back
incessantly on the half-amused sidelong glance that has become her go-to
expression in far better projects. Much of the time, in fact, Bullock appears
to have forgotten her lines, and instead attempts to “cover” by flailing
aimlessly.
This doesn’t speak well of
director David Gordon Green, apparently unable to handle his leading lady. Or
maybe Bullock didn’t like him. Whatever the reason, she just isn’t present ... even when lovingly framed,
front and center — and too frequently in tight close-up — by cinematographer
Tim Orr.
Bullock is far from this film’s
only problem. Peter Straughan’s script is a mess: His effort to transform this
serious premise into a satire is half-assed at best, but most often just
clumsy. And when satire fails — particularly if the topic is based on actual
events — the result becomes tasteless. And offensive.
Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary
of the same title tracks the jaw-dropping degree to which the American
consulting firm of Greenberg, Carville and Strum (GCS) did its best to rig the
2003 Bolivian presidential election on behalf of its client, Gonzalo “Goni”
Sanchez de Lozada, who’d held that top spot from 1993-97, but had come to be
seen as arrogant and out of touch with the common people.
Yep, you read that correctly:
American political consultants plying their dirty tricks to affect the outcome
of a presidential election in a foreign country. Clandestine U.S. involvement
in foreign politics is nothing new, of course; what made this particular case
so egregious was the degree to which GCS made little or no effort to conceal its
activities. Hell, these guys were proud
of their work.
The charismatic James Carville
was the beaming public face of GCS; that’s the role assigned here to Bullock,
playing burned-out campaign fixer “Calamity” Jane Bodine. Anxiety and a series
of high-profile failures sent her into isolated retirement; as this film
begins, she’s tempted back into the game by the opportunity for one more match
against her longtime professional nemesis, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton, who
apparently based his look on Carville).
