Four stars (out of five). Rating: PG-13, for quite a bit of (good-natured) profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.31.08
Buy DVD: Swing Vote
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Although the movie industry occasionally dabbles in politics, the results usually emerge as a comedy or a thriller: either way, nothing to be taken seriously.
And when filmmakers try to be serious, the results usually fall far short of expectations. Last year's Lions for Lambs
became the most recent flop to "prove" an ancient Hollywood truism: Politics is the kiss of death to a film, as far as box office results are concerned.  |
| Career goof-off Bud Johnson (Kevin Coster) finally gets a sense of his pivotal place in history after confronting the sacks of mail from citizens across the entire United States: letters that his far more sensitive daughter, Molly (Madeline Carroll) has been answering in his name, so that all these people don't think that her father is letting them down. |
Indeed, one could cite the truly great American political films on the fingers of one hand: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
, All the King's Men
(the 1949 version), The Candidate
and Wag the Dog
come to mind, with Thirteen Days
and Primary Colors
perhaps ranking as recent near-misses. Director/co-writer Joshua Michael Stern and fellow scribe Jason Richman deserve considerable credit, then, for their sharply observed screenplay in Swing Vote, a deceptively quiet little comedy-drama that takes an increasingly perceptive poke at the modern American political machine. And if the behavior of our two political parties, as this story progresses, doesn't really seem that bizarre ... well, then, more's the pity.
Swing Vote also demonstrates, yet again, the amazing resilience of star Kevin Costner. This guy's career has had more peaks and valleys than most, but every time he threatens to become known only for ill-advised projects — Dragonfly
and Rumor Has It
come to mind, and even last year's cleverly conceived Mr. Brooks
was a financial disappointment — he rebounds with another one of his well-timed and perfectly cast Americana roles: think Bull Durham
, Tin Cup
, Open Range
and now Swing Vote.Costner slides comfortably into his part here as Bud Johnson, an apathetic, smart-mouthed but usually amiable loser who drinks too much and can't be bothered to do more than just slide by. He and his precocious 12-year-old daughter, Molly (Madeline Carroll, a thorough delight), live in a dilapidated mobile home, where he crashes each night after too many beers, following another demoralizing factory shift where he packages eggs on an assembly line.
Molly is Bud's "one good thing," but he takes unconscionable advantage of the girl, who too often finds herself being the parent in their family dynamic: She makes all the meals, cleans things up and hauls him out of bed each morning, so he can drive her to school ... although, as we quickly learn, she's capable of driving herself, having gotten considerable practice every time Bud goes on a bender.
Bud and Molly live in flyspeck Texico, N.M., a community so tiny that it isn't even on the map. As a result, local interest in the impending presidential election is somewhat lax, with pollworkers likely to fall asleep from sheer boredom.
But Molly takes civic duty quite seriously. A well- received school essay comes to the attention of local TV reporter Kate Madison (Paula Patton), who puts the girl on the evening news; this plays right into the most recent promise Molly has extracted from her father, who has agreed to let her write about his voting experience that same evening.
