Swing Vote a Swing in the Right Direction

I remember back last fall while I was watching the hour on CBC, George Stroumboulopoulos did an interview with Kevin Costner about his new movie, Swing Vote. As you can probably guess, the film is about one man who is given the fate of the US presidency because of a miss vote. Well when I heard what he said about the film I was expecting it to be a very simple predictable film. Well, on the outside it was. It was very predictable, and very funny. But the writing was absolutely fantastic. The dialogue was witty, and characters delivered it well, and overall the film showed some really great values about what is wrong with politics in the states.

Kevin Costner played Ernest "Bud" Johnson, an alcoholic, single father with a 10 year old daughter who is much, much smarter then her father. Being so politically apathetic, when Bud gets laid off on election day, he goes to the neighborhood bar and gets completely wasted while forgetting about his promise to his daughter to vote. This causes a bit of a dilemma for Molly (his daughter). She, being so politically minded, makes a stupid move and tries to vote for her father. While in the voting booth, a freak accident causes the computer to be reset and the vote to not be counted. In the mean time, the election gets to be very close. So close that Buds county becomes the one that will decide the election. During a moment of panic Bud and Molly lie and say that Bud voted instead of Molly and gave Bud the chance to re cast his vote.

There were a couple of reasons that this movie was as good as it was. One was the acting, Kevin Costner took a very simple character (Joe the Plumber meets Bill Engvall kind of guy) and made you care about him. He had all the faults you could expect and still came out looking good. His daughter, played by Madeline Carrol, was just as good if not better then the rest of the cast. She was very reminiscent of Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine. The rest of cast were great as well with the standouts being the presidential candidates, played by Kelsey Grammar and Dennis Hopper.

The other thing that made this movie great was its political satire. Throughout the movie, there were interviews done with Bud to see what mattered to him. Along with each interview a new political add was unveiled. For instance, when Bud said that he was pro gay rights, Kelsey Grammar and the Republicans made an add supporting gay rights. Then Bud inadvertently implies that he is pro life, the Democrats make an anti abortion add. The satire (although completely predictable) shows exactly what is wrong with politics. To much focus on PR and not enough on what will actually help the world. It really says something about our political situation and it is perfectly summed up in Bud's final speech. He says, "America needs someone who is bigger then their speeches."

Overall the film was really great, and despite its predictability it was a good feel good movie. I warn any parents who want their kids to see the film to watch out for the language cause Bud can be a bit fowl. 8/10 stars.