Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: April 2nd, 2009

    
Swing Vote

    This film may work for others; however, there is no doubt that it works for this political junkie. I enjoyed the whole of this film, irrespective of the fact that the premise that one man's vote, not being counted, would have triggered the situation that his vote would have to be recast as the tiebreaker for a presidential election to be certified. There is simply no scenario where that event would take place; however, because the rest of this political comedy / drama is so spot on: all is forgiven, and my complete state of my disbelief is totally suspended.

    Director Joshua Michael Stern, who co-wrote the screenplay along with Jason Richman, keeps the story in the forefront and lets the actors do their job. Speaking of which; whenever the film is a comedy / drama, the acting must be good to outstanding for the film to work. In this capacity: Kevin Costner does his usual fine job as Bud Johnson, the pre-alcoholic father and "ne'er do well" chicken / egg processing worker, that wakes up the day after a presidential election and discovers a vote attributed to him did not count. His daughter, played with total precocious dexterity by Madeline Carroll, is responsible for his vote almost being cast, regardless of the fact that he lost his job and was curb crawling drunk when it was time to vote there in New Mexico.

    The two men running for president are; Dennis Hopper (long time Hollywood Republican, which is quite nonconformist) as Donald Greenleaf, the very liberal democrat, and Kelsey Grammer (another Republican, very rare for Hollywood) was "typecast" as incumbent Republican President Andrew Boone, and he was great as the president that parks Air Force 1 on the local tarmac, who was there, with the urging of the hyper attentive chief of staff played by Stanley Tucci, to give Bud some personal time to swing his vote. Dennis Hopper is truly convincing as the committed liberal, who will abandon all issues liberal to win this election. Nathan Lane, as Greenleaf's political chief, is also as purposeful as Tucci and just like the film is truly funny.

    I suggest this film for the political junkie and anyone else, who can suspend disbelief to enjoy a fine story on film about do what ever it takes to win - even if it meant sacrificing all semblance of integrity for the prize. Great film and at 120 minutes of runtime, it is well worth your time.

    Rated PG13. Released on DVD January 13, 2009.

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