There is a contingent of the world's population (perhaps a large contingent) that thinks the average American voter is less than intelligent. There is another contingent of the world's population that thinks the average American politician is less than intelligent (these contingents definitely have some overlap). Kevin Costner's latest movie, Swing Vote, explores both these ideas, with about as much success as the average American politician.
That is to say, depending on how you see the movie it is either a crashing success or a terrible bore. If one wants wit, depth, and an actual exploration of politics and the population's relationship to elections one will be exceedingly disappointed with the film. If one wants little more than silly platitudes and an uplifting ending complete with an eleventh hour-turnaround by the main character, one couldn't ask for more.
Swing Vote follows Bud Johnson (Costner) and his daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll) as Bud finds himself at the center of a firestorm in a contested presidential election. Bud is left with making the final decision on who will become the next president – the incumbent, Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer) or the Democratic challenger, Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper).
How exactly it all came down to Bud's decision, is a little up in the air. Molly ends up voting in Bud's name, but the electronic voting machine gets unplugged halfway through and ends up registering an error. The election overall is terribly close and New Mexico (Bud's state of residence) is undecided. Apparently New Mexico is undecided because one county is undecided and one county is undecided because one city, Texico (Bud's city) is undecided, and apparently Texico is undecided because Bud's vote didn't register.
Not only is the notion foolish, but it is entirely impossible for the election to come to that point. And that, sadly, helps destroy the entire movie. "Suspension of disbelief" doesn't allow one to go quite that far, particularly when this is supposed to be a down to earth story about regular people making a difference. Essentially then the movie's statement is that the average person can make a difference, but only when the system goes horribly awry in a completely fictional way; anything short of an imaginary break in the system render's the importance of the individual null and void. Clearly not the message the movie is going for, but the one that it delivers nonetheless.
From that point, the film gets exceptionally foolish, with the candidates heading to Texico, New Mexico in order to pander to Bud and his every whim. The promises they make Bud fly in the face of everything their respective parties stand for, but they're constantly pushed by their respective advisors, played by Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci, to do it anyway.
Article comments