Jim's "Go or Don't Go" - Swing Vote

It's been a while since I've done a "Go or Don't Go" - either I've been extremely busy, or none of the movies that we have watched have really inspired a review. Probably a combination of both. 2008's Swing Vote seems to have finally gotten me back to the keyboard to put down some thoughts.

The film stars Kevin Costner as Bud Johnson, and egg processing plant worker from the podunk town of Texico, New Mexico. He's a divorced drunk, a slacker and an irresponsible father. The real adult of the household is his twelve-year old daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll), who splits her time by being an intelligent, civic-minded student and primary caretaker of her dad. She can't decide if she wants to be a veternarian or chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Through a series of complicated, yet plausible events, Bud finds himself being the deciding vote in a deadlocked presidential election. Because of a voting machine error, he has 10 days to re-cast his vote, giving the two presidential candidates time to sway him in any way possible. This is where the movie really struck a chord with me.

Anyone that knows me is aware that I am extemely cynical of the political process, especially national politics. By reducing the election's results to one man, the film does an excellent job of revealing how the two political parties truly view voters. The candiates (Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper - both conservatives in real life, BTW) are decent men, surrounded by political hacks that will sell their mother's souls to win the election. The movie's satire really becomes absurd when you see a Democrat making a pro-life commercial and the Republican catering to the Greenpeace crowd. Even though the film take's the situation to the extreme, I never thought that it veered too far from reality - which says something about how pathetic the political process has become - or always has been.

And of course, you know in a movie like this that there is going to be a rousing speech by Costner that will make all the guilty parties, including himself, feel very badly about their very bad behavior. The film doesn't take sides politically - it's just a call-to-action to get involved. Bud's speech is followed by pure fantasy - a real person, asking real questions to the two candidates, in a real debate. Never happen.

This movie was better than I expected. Coster is good as the shiftless Bud, keeping the character sypathetic. Madeline Carroll is one of best things about Swing Vote. She plays an intelligent child without being annoyingly precocious - a seemingly impossible task in most Hollywood films. Their relationship is really the heart of the film. Other than a minor plot distraction involving Bud's estranged wife, things moved along pretty well. Also - Bud has a slight problem with profanity (but he's working on it), so fair warning to those who are easily-offended.

Swing Vote is not the most sophisticated of political satires, and it won't change the world, but it did brighten my little corner of it for a couple of hours. I say "Go."