Mirrors
The idea behind Mirrors is that there is another world behind the glass, a much darker and more evil world, and what happens when this world can start affecting our own. Although it's not listed in the credits, this film is a remake of a Korean movie called Into the Mirror. I have not seen the original inspiration, so I cannot compare the two movies. All I can say is that this film takes so many wild turns into so many different directions, I started to ask myself where it was going to go next, and not in a good way. At least the movie is slow in getting to the silliness. Perhaps a bit too slow. Aja seemed to be trying to make a slow-burn paranormal thriller here, but there's only so many times we can see the lead hero stepping around in the dark with a flashlight, cautiously eyeing every mirror or piece of reflective glass he comes in contact with, before it starts to lose its effectiveness. There's not enough material here to fill Mirror's nearly two hour running time, and the end result is a needlessly pokey and ultimately contrived thriller that never quite thrills.
The plot: Kiefer Sutherland plays a former New York police detective named Ben Carson, who quit the force over a year ago after he accidentally shot a fellow officer. Ben hasn't been quite the same since, having problems with alcohol and popping pills, and it has taken its toll on his wife Amy (Paula Patton from the recent Swing Vote) and two young kids. As the film opens, he's living with his sister Angela (Amy Smart), and hoping that his new job will be a step toward rebuilding his life. He takes a job as the night watchman at the condemned Mayflower department store, a once-lavish shopping center that was ravished by a deadly fire five years ago. Ben is supposed to patrol the remains of the building every few hours, and as he does, he notices something strange about the mirrors in the store - they seem brand new and untouched by the flames. Even stranger, he keeps on seeing nightmarish visions of people screaming and in agony in their reflective surfaces. You'd think this would be enough to convince Ben to look into a different line of work, but he becomes obsessed, especially when the mirrors start delivering messages to him that appear in cracks in their surfaces. Of course, these messages consist of a vague clue, in this case a name - "Esseker". The ghosts obviously know the cliches of the movie they're in, which states that they can never come right out and say what they want.
As Ben races about the city, trying to find out who Esseker is and what the mirrors want with him, his family begins to find themselves in danger, as the ghosts can apparently move themselves to mirror surfaces outside of the store as well. This is not really explained very well. They apparently start attacking people close to their victim if he or she is taking too long to decipher their cryptic riddles. Don't the ghosts know they'd get what they want quicker if they were more helpful and not killing people? Basically, it's the movie painting itself into a corner by changing the rules. If the ghosts can appear in any reflective surface they want outside of the store, why are they picking on the night watchman? Why not someone more important who would have access to the information they want, or someone who's close to this Esseker person? It's hard to get wrapped up in a supernatural thriller when you keep on finding logic holes in the ghosts' plan. It's also hard when the director apparently gave orders to Kiefer Sutherland to ham up his performance as much as possible. I don't think there's a scene in this movie where he's not frenzied, screaming, or a combination of both.
Mirrors takes itself way too seriously. It doesn't even have fun with itself when Ben starts trying to protect his wife and kids by covering all their mirrors with paint and putting newspapers up over their windows. What would the neighbors think? I kept on waiting for a scene where one would show up, and he'd have to try to explain to them what he was doing. This never happens, as Ben just keeps on racing around, trying to find Esseker. I won't reveal what he finds, but I will say that it's at this point that the movie goes from being an underwhelming ghost movie and becomes an even more underwhelming rip off of The Exorcist. The film's climax (which is clumsily shot with rapid edits, so we can hardly tell what's going on) made me feel like I was watching a Celebrity Wrestling match between Kiefer Sutherland and Linda Blair. Now there's a movie! Forget the possessed mirrors and spooky visions, and just give us that fight. Even after all this, the movie still has enough time to throw an uninspired twist ending at us, which would probably be right at home in a lesser episode of The Twilight Zone.
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The solitary purpose of The Clone Wars is to introduce a new animated TV series that will be debuting on the Cartoon Network later this year. Now kids will be able to follow the further adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi (voice by James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter), set chronologically between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. But, hold on a minute. Did executive producer George Lucas or anyone else involved with the project realize just how pointless this idea is? We've seen the original trilogy, we've seen the prequel trilogy. We pretty much know what's going to happen to the characters, since their fates have pretty much been public knowledge for about 30 years now. Where's the suspense in that? Why should we tune in to see if these heroes are going to make it out okay if we already know they obviously did? It's a core problem in the movie as well. When Anakin faces down the evil Count Dooku (Christopher Lee, one of the few original actors from the actual Star Wars films who lends his voice to this cartoon) late in the film, the fight seems completely needless, since we hold advance knowledge that the characters do not.
The story that director Dave Filoni and his writers have come up with can best be described as a very basic and shallow hook to hang a seemingly endless string of interminable space dogfight battles, and lightsabre duels. Jabba the Hutt's infant son, Rotta, is kidnapped by mysterious assailants. The kidnappers are working under the devious Dooku, who plans to use the baby Hutt to frame the Jedi, leading Jabba to believe that they are responsible for the abduction. Obi-Wan and Anakin already have their hands full battling the evil droid army that is spreading out across the galaxy, and now they must track down the young creature before the Hutt clan declares war against the Jedi and the Republic. While Obi-Wan and the clone soldiers try to hold off the advancing armies, Anakin, along with his young Padawan apprentice Ahsoaka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), must try to return Rotta to his proper home. Call it Adventures in Hutt-Sitting.
The Clone Wars literally starts with a bang, throwing us directly into the middle of a battle with little explanation, other than a hastily-spoken narration voice over that sounds like it was read by a game show announcer. From there, the characters are briefly re-introduced to us in the thick of battle. Obi-Wan and Anakin exchange a couple weak one-liners with each other, while Yoda (Tom Kane) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) are pretty much restricted to barely registering cameo roles as they watch on the sidelines. Once the situation with the missing baby Hutt is established, the movie literally never slows down. It's one exhausting fight scene or action sequence after another as Anakin and Ahsoaka race across the galaxy to reach the planet Tatooine, as they're pursued by various aliens, droids, and whatever else the filmmakers feel like throwing in. It doesn't take long for the movie to start to resemble a hyper-active video game, as it never slows down long enough to allow the characters to do anything but run and shoot at things. But then, given the wooden dialogue on display, maybe it's a good thing. While the actual Star Wars films were not exactly known for their dialogue, I have to admit I choked on my soda just a little when I heard Anakin's new Padawan refer to him affectionately as "Sky-guy".
It's quite clear that the main appeal of the original films were the special effects, not to mention the imaginative worlds and creatures. So then why does The Clone Wars look no better than the stuff you see in a Saturday morning cartoon? I know, the movie is intended to be a launching point for one, but that doesn't explain how cheap everything looks here. The characters suffer from a very shiny and "plastic" look that makes them look more like animated action figures than actual people inhabiting the story. The hair on the characters don't even move. It's molded and painted onto their heads, kind of like a Ken doll. I'm also still trying to figure out the filmmakers' decision to give everyone such limited facial movement, making the entire cast look like they just received a massive Botox implant. I didn't believe for a second that I was watching a genuine story, or even a continuation of the Star Wars universe. I felt like I was listening to a bad fanfiction story written by a fanboy hopped up on way too much caffeine, acted out by poorly rendered video game characters.
The premise is nothing we haven't heard before - A group of actors are shooting a movie, in this case a Vietnam film. Something happens where they find themselves wrapped up in the real thing, and for the longest time, they think they're still making the movie, not realizing the danger they're in. It's the intelligence and the sheer number of big laughs in Tropic Thunder that lifts this film beyond other films using the same idea. Co-writer, director and star, Ben Stiller, is not just content to recycle plots here. He's here to give Hollywood, and everyone in it, a merciless skewering. The fact that he has wrapped up some big names as his co-stars and in cameo roles all but proves just how right he got it with his take on the industry. The film within the film here is an over budget and troubled war film that has its director (Steve Coogan) at the end of his rope. Despite bringing together some of the biggest names in Hollywood, he can't work with their clashing egos. The writer of the book on which the film is based, a grizzled war vet with a hook for each hand (Nick Nolte), suggests they drop the pampered actors into the middle of the jungle, shoot the film with hidden cameras, and make the most realistic war movie ever made.
The main cast includes fading action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), who is trying to revive his career after his attempt at an Oscar-bait drama called Simple Jack, where he played a lovable mentally challenged farmhand, fell flat with critics and audiences. Also along for the ride is multi-award winning Australian method actor, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr), who underwent a controversial cosmetic surgery to change the color of his skin so that he could play a black soldier in the film's platoon. While this could easily be offensive in the wrong hands, Stiller shows his intelligence at the screenplay level by teaming him up with rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), who not only fails to see the logic in casting an Australian in the role of an African American, but frequently calls the method actor on the fact that he continuously stays in character, even when the cameras aren't rolling. It's biting satire on Hollywood's insistence on having a "name" actor in the leading role, no matter how ridiculous it may be sometimes, and it really works here.
Joining the cast is Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), a comic actor best known for a series of comedies called The Fatties, where he plays every member of an overweight flatulence-prone family. Finally, there's relative newcomer, Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel). Each of the main cast are obviously based on people that Stiller, and co-writers Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, have had personal experiences with in past films. It's not hard to see the inspiration in a lot of them. Black's Jeff Portnoy somewhat physically resembles late comic, Chris Farley, while his films are obviously modeled after Eddie Murphy's current work. But the movie goes beyond the simple and obvious targets. It's not afraid to expose a mirror to ruthless studio heads, clueless agents, and just about everything the filmmaking community stands for. Yes, it's true that Tropic Thunder is not the first "inside Hollywood" film to look at such things. But rarely do those films match the insight and biting wit on display here.
The plot officially kicks in when the stranded actors come across an Asian pirate drug cartel who take most of the cast and crew hostage, while attempting to kill the others. This leads to a number of ridiculous and over the top action sequences. Much like last week's Pineapple Express, this movie tries to blend laughs with often graphic violence. Heading home from the movie, I wondered to myself why it worked for me here, but not in the other film. A big part I think has to do with the fact that Stiller and his co-stars play their roles as pompous, comedic caricatures. They're just as over the top as the situations they find themselves in, so it does not seem quite so out of place here. The movie finds a consistent tone, wether they're tossing one-liners, or tossing grenades at drug-crazed 10-year-old Asian kids. There's a certain unbridled ferociousness to the comedy that's very admirable here. You get the sense that the cast will try just about anything for a laugh, and although there are some occasional clunkers (a subplot concerning Nick Nolte's character being captured along with the film's explosive's expert, played by Danny McBride, never quite takes off, and is wisely dropped early on), the many jokes that do work deliver such large laughs that it can be easily forgiven.
Though Tropic Thunder frequently flies into the realm of bad taste, the energetic cast keep the atmosphere fun, instead of disheartening. While Stiller, Jack Black, and Steve Coogan as the suffering director all get their share of stand out moments, they are all outshadowed by Robert Downey Jr, who continues his summer winning streak after Iron Man with his riotous portrayal of a man so in love with himself, he fails to see how ridiculous he truly is in his most recent role. It's a risky role, and one that easily could have damaged his career, but he pulls it off by having his character not be in on the joke. He's not making a racial statement, he's making a statement on egotistical actors here. There are also a lot of fun cameos, including a not-so-secret appearance by Tom Cruise as an overweight and balding studio head who curses like a sailor and dances to hip-hop, and Matthew McConaughey as Tugg Speedman's agent, who seems more concerned with hooking his client up with Tivo, as his contract clearly states, rather than his client's own safety.
The title refers to four girls who are lifelong best friends who, despite going their separate ways in life, they share a common bond - a pair of jeans that somehow is able to be a perfect fit for all four of them. Each girl wears the jeans for a week, then mails it off to the next girl along with a letter of what is going on in their lives. I'm assuming they also wash the jeans once in a while, since they've apparently been doing this for three or four years now as the film starts. However, the movie never goes close to a laundromat. The first film covered their high school years. Now they're young adults and, much to the sadness of one of the girls, Carmen (America Ferrara), they're starting to drift apart as they go their own ways in life. Can the magic of the traveling pants keep them together? This is just one of the many tough questions this movie asks. I won't spoil the answer for you, but I will say that the last half hour of the film is driven by the crisis of the pants having gone missing.
Despite the fact that the girls are now in their 20s, their personalities and problems still seem rooted in teenage soap operas. The previously mentioned Carmen is a shy and kind of quiet girl who is constantly kept on the sidelines by one of her friends, a snobby blonde named Julia (Rachel Nichols), who we can immediately spot as being a stuck up witch from the second she walks on screen, but Carmen doesn't realize until much later, when she's ready to deliver that quote about "diminishing your potential". Carmen works backstage at a theater company in Vermont, where Julia is a star player. But then, a handsome young British actor named Ian (Tom Wisdom) takes a shine to her, and forces her to audition for the female lead in their production of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale". Carmen gets the role, while snobby Julia is stuck with a minor role. With Carmen getting not only the lead but all the attention from Ian, Julia sets about a devious scheme to bring her friend down, by pretending that Ian is in love with her instead, and badmouthing Carmen behind her back with the director and other actors. These are the kind of plots that used to fuel after school teen dramas on Nickeloden and MTV. Now they're carrying our summer movies.
The thing is, America Ferrara is quite likable as Carmen, and has a lot of personality in the role. It's just that the tired screenplay does her no favors. The same goes for the rest of the Sisterhood, which includes sporty Bridget (Blake Lively), sarcastic Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), and nice girl artist Lena (Alexis Bledel). They're fine actresses in their respective roles, and the characters that they play are quite likable. Bridget goes off to Turkey to participate in an archeological dig, but leaves early to reunite with her estranged grandmother (Blythe Danner) whom she hasn't seen in years, and helps Bridget comes to terms with the suicide death of her mother. Tibby has a brief scare when she thinks she might be pregnant after having sex with a guy she's been seeing for almost a year, and the condom breaks. Lena is going to art school, and finds herself torn between two guys - the nude model who poses for her in class whom she has struck up a relationship with, and an old flame from the original film who broke her heart, but has come back. Despite the performances and the characters being likable, their storylines and problems are so generic and straight-forward, it's really hard to care about anything that happens to them.
Part of the reason why the stories never quite connect emotionally is that the movie feels like it's constantly pulling us in different directions. The film glaringly jumps from one plotline to the next with very little rhyme or reason. It's almost as if director Sanaa Hamri had strict orders that no scene could be longer than two minutes in length. Just when we're starting to get drawn in a little, it suddenly jumps to a completely different story, and then just as rapidly jumps to the one after that. Of the four main plots, Carmen's is probably the one that the film spends the most amount of time with, so she comes across as the most fleshed out of the girls. The other members of the Sisterhood seem to get a bit shafted, especially Bridget. The movie spends very little time with her and her grandmother, so we never get a true sense of their connection, which is so key to her storyline. Her final scene with her father, which is supposed to be the emotional climax of her plot, is so brief it almost seems like an afterthought.
Just like Superbad, the movie deals with two friends who find themselves in a series of escalating adventures just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a process server who spends half of his time handing out legal summons, and the rest of his time either getting high with his best friend and drug dealer, Saul (James Franco, in a rare and surprisingly effective comic role), or trying to avoid the parents of his underage high school girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard). After Dale picks up some rare weed from Saul known as Pineapple Express, he goes back to work, and happens to witness a murder where he sees a dangerous drug kingpin named Ted (Gary Cole) and a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) executing a rival. In his panic to escape, Dale accidentally drops his joint, and Ted recognizes it and its source. Dale and Saul are forced to go on the run, trying to stay ahead of the hitmen that Ted sends after them, no longer sure who they can trust.
Pineapple Express is the sixth release from Apatow's production company in the course of a full year (from last August when Superbad came out, to now), and this movie obviously shows some strains. While there are still some fleeting laughs throughout the film, they're not as big as they should be, and they definitely did not come very often to me, or anyone else at my screening. Much of the humor is of the lazy stoner variety, which we have seen far too many times before, and the movie does very little to convince us why we need to see it again. This is a fairly aimless and meandering comedy that takes its sweet time in setting up its premise, then pretty much puts it aside for long periods of time, giving Rogen and Franco plenty of chances to do some pot-assisted hijinks. While I'm still not fully convinced that Seth Rogen has what it takes to be a leading man, James Franco seems more than up to the challenge of playing the surprisingly sweet-natured and almost child-like Saul. Not only does he get the best lines in the film, but he also throws himself full-tilt into his off-kilter character, and makes him into someone we can get behind. He's obviously the character that got the most attention at the screenplay level, as no one else even comes close in the film. No surprise, considering Rogen had initially written the character for himself.
Much like the two half-baked lead characters, the movie seems to be in a continuous daze. It never really focuses on its plot, its characters, or anything much in particular. The villains and hitmen after Dale and Saul kind of wander in and out of the story. They're there to fuel the more action-heavy moments of the film, but not much more than that. Equally mishandled is the character of Dale's girlfriend, Angie, who is set up early on to play an important role in the film, then kind of just peters out without so much as a resolution. We're supposed to be amused by the antics of the two friends at the center of the film, and while I was for a while, they're not strong enough to carry a nearly two hour long movie. At least the title characters in the Harold and Kumar films come across as interesting and somewhat intelligent people. Though Franco's Saul is likable, neither him or Dale come across as people you'd want to spend an extended amount of time with. Even stoner comedies need something we can attach ourselves to, and this movie gives us very little in terms of character.
What sets Pineapple Express apart from most comedies of its kind is its occasional action sequences, and surprisingly graphic depiction of violence. While the sequences are done extremely well (a highlight being a wonderfully staged car chase sequence half-way through the film), they do give the film a severe personality disorder. The film's climactic and gory shoot out is surprisingly brutal, especially considering that this is the same movie that features a fellow drug dealer whose running gag is that he cannot die, no matter how much he gets shot, mangled, or blown up. It's last 20 minutes or so suddenly seems to take a rather serious turn on its violence, and we're left with mixed signals. The characters seem out of place with the violence and chaos erupting around them, and while that's perhaps the joke, I still found it hard to chuckle when a character who was mainly played for laughs was crushed to death by a speeding car.
I certainly have to give him credit for effort, though. This movie contains stuff like ancient jewels with magic powers that can only be activated when the blood of someone "with a pure heart" comes in contact with it. This is also the kind of movie where explorers discover an ancient tomb and accidentally set off some booby traps, killing off some of the faceless hired help in their expedition. The explorers merely brush off the death of their comrades with a casual "comes with the territory". And just to top it all off, there's shape-shifting mummies, not one but two armies of the undead, and immortal witches who can summon a band of yetis when the heroes are outnumbered in battle. It sounds fun, and by all accounts it should be, but something is off. The humor and one-liners are muted, and save for the returning cast members, everyone seems to be taking this stuff a little too seriously. This is supposed to be mindless popcorn entertainment, and somehow the movie fooled itself into thinking it was epic.
Things start off on the wrong foot with an overlong and overly serious back story about the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li), an ancient warlord who swept across ancient China to conquer the land with his massive army. He eventually wished to become immortal, and enlisted a local witch named Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) to guide him to a secret magic scroll that could grant his wish. The Emperor fell in love with the woman, but her affections fell to his head General instead. The Emperor has the General killed, and in an act of revenge, Zi Juan curses the Emperor and his entire army, turning them to stone, where they are eventually entombed. The immortal Zi Juan and her daughter, Lin (Isabella Leong), have been guarding the tomb for centuries, but that doesn't stop it from being discovered by young tomb raider, Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford). Alex finds out too late that he has been used by an evil Chinese army, who wish to revive the Dragon Emperor and take over the world. Alex must team up with his father, Rick (Brendan Fraser) and mother, Evelyn (Maria Bello, stepping in for Rachel Weisz from the first two films), who both obviously have a lot of experience dealing with evil world-conquering mummies. Along for the ride is Evelyn's brother and comic relief, Jonathan (John Hannah), and a pilot named Mad Dog (Liam Cunningham) from Rick's old days as a soldier.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is never as fun as it seems to think it is, or as thrilling. It keeps on throwing a lot of over the top action sequences at us, including a scene where Rick and his friends are in a car driving down the streets of Shanghai as they pursue the Dragon Emperor in a ghoulish horse and carriage. A scene like this would probably inspire some sort of wonder in a different movie, but here, it's just a lot of CG and fireworks going off. The movie seems more concerned about throwing it's budget all over the screen, rather than actually entertaining us. There are so many scenes that initially start off as being promising, only to be let down by the total lack of imagination put into the screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Just imagine the expectations I had when the heroes were battling with the evil Chinese army in the Himalayas, and the witch Lin summons a group of yetis to come and aid them in battle. Then imagine my disappointment when the yetis were basically restricted to not doing a while lot but throwing people around over and over, and a lame sight gag where one of the monsters throws a soldier over a goal post-shaped gate like a football, then does the "touchdown" hand gesture. It doesn't help matters that the yetis come across as The Incredible Hulk crossed with Ewoks to begin with.
Now the previous Mummy films weren't exactly classics, but at least the cast seemed to be having fun. Here, everything's done on a lower level. Brendan Fraser does what he can, and is still as likable as ever as Rick, but the one-liners he's been given this time around aren't as good, and he seems to know it. At the very least, at least he's not restricted merely to standing around while things fly at the camera like in his other recent adventure film, Journey to the Center of the Earth. While Fraser at least seems to be trying, his co-stars seem lost at sea. Maria Bello is a poor replacement for Weisz, as she lacks the chemistry with Fraser. She constantly comes across as a stand-in, rather than the character we've come to know. The same goes for Luke Ford as Rick and Evelyn's adult son. Fraser and Ford are never able to create a real father-son bond, and seem more like distant friends than family. A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that Ford is only 12 years younger than Fraser in real life. John Hannah is back as the wise-cracking Jonathan, but much like Fraser, his comic material is lacking this time around.
What's probably a bigger disappointment are some of the new characters to the franchise, especially when you consider the talent that's been gathered. Jet Li makes for a surprisingly dull and unmemorable villain, who acts more as a plot device than an actual character in the story. He has the power to control the elements and can change his form into a three-headed dragon or a giant beast-like creature, but he seldom utilizes these abilities, preferring instead to stand around, narrowing his eyes at everything and everyone around him. The equally talented Michelle Yeoh is wasted also in her role that barely registers as a supporting part. It seems a crime that the confrontation between these two legendary martial arts stars comes across as a 20 second afterthought, before the movie goes right back to throwing CG in our face. The lovely young Isabella Leong is nice to look at, but mainly spends her screen time being enamored with Alex for little to no reason, since Alex doesn't do much during the course of the film.
One thing that the movie fortunately understands is its star, Kevin Costner. Despite the fact that much of his professional career has been tarnished due to some very bad choices throughout the 90s, I still can find him likable in down to earth everyman roles. Here, he plays Bud Johnson, a middle-aged blue collar man whose life is in shambles. He lives in a trailer with his serious-minded young daughter, Molly (Madeline Carroll), his debts are piling up, he recently lost his job, and he is so irresponsible to the point that Molly often comes across as the parent in their relationship, making breakfast for him and practically running the house when he's too drunk to even stand up. Molly has an interest in politics, and is trying to convince her dad to vote in the upcoming Presidential election. When Bud lets her down by not even showing up at the voting center, the girl decides to take matters into her own hands, and secretly votes for him. Unfortunately, a computer glitch erases the vote. In the coming days, it is revealed that the numbers for the next President are too close to call, and it all rests on Bud's single vote once his identity is quickly tracked down by a rising young TV anchorwoman named Kate Madison (Paula Patton).
Bud's run down trailer in the middle of the New Mexico desert suddenly becomes the center of the world as the news media, curious onlookers, and members of the two presidential campaigns swoop down almost overnight. The two competing nominees, current Republican President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer) and Democratic opponent Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper), are advised by their respective campaign managers (Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane) to do whatever it takes to get Bud's vote and confidence. They try catering their views to his wants, and even resort to bribes to win his favor. As the situation escalates out of control, Bud finds his sudden celebrity status confusing, while young Molly only wants her dad to listen to the common people once letters from all over the nation start piling in, reminding him of what he should be standing and voting for.
In terms of political stance and satire, Swing Vote is about as sharp as a butter knife. I do like that the film does not take sides. It is neither pro or anti Republican and Democrat, and both candidates are treated relatively the same, even if both individuals come across as being easily swayed and all too willing to flip-flop with whatever the situation demands. The movie obviously wants to be a simple, laid back, and almost Frank Capra-style fable about a common blue collar everyman who never cared much about anything, who suddenly finds himself in a position where his voice and decision can affect the lives of millions. The movie doesn't try to make any startling statements about politics, and doesn't say anything that hasn't been said a hundred times before. While this is not all bad, I sometimes wanted the movie to get a little bit more fearless sometimes. It seems so determined not to truly offend or say anything challenging in any way, shape or form, that it almost seems to be holding itself back. The movie has some fun with some clever and witty campaign commercials with both candidates switching their views based around whatever Bud happens to say in a news interview. This obviously alienates their past supporters, and I wish the film had gone more in depth with this idea, as we never get a true sense of how these two men are hurting themselves by redesigning their entire campaigns on the whim of a single man.
Despite the main emphasis on the election, the movie is actually strongest when it steps away from the campaign race, and focuses on Bud and Molly's life at home. This is what gives Swing Vote most of its heart and charm. While there are a few scenes that seem somewhat emotionally forced, such as Molly running away and discovering what her estranged mother has become over the years, these scenes are genuinely heartfelt and seem more honest than any of the political stuff. The fact that their family life plays a big role in the film itself is mainly what helps lift the film up above its flaws. Bud and Molly are written as real people, and despite their vast differences in personality, we can sense true love and chemistry between the two. Bud is written as a man who has pretty much given up on the world, with only his daughter left. Molly is a girl smart beyond her 10 years who refuses to give up on her dad, even if he has already given up on himself. The screenplay by Stern and Jason Richman (Bad Company) gives them enough moments together that not only do we get a feel for their relationship, but it becomes the strongest aspect of the film, carrying us through its two hour running time.
A big part of this appeal has to do with Costner and rising young child star, Madeline Carroll, who after this movie, I can easily see joining the ranks of Dakota Fanning and Abigail Breslin at the top of the child actor heap. Carroll has had some small roles in past films such as Resident Evil: Extinction and The Santa Clause 3, but this is her first major character, and she not only manages to keep up with Costner, she actually surpasses him in more than a few scenes. I'm anxious to see her again, and to see her career build from here. Speaking of Costner, this is one of his most natural performances in years. While he occasionally comes a bit close to playing up the "aw shucks" good old boy routine a bit too far, he never loses the heart of his character, and makes Bud into someone we want to see change for the better, just like his daughter does. With these great performances and material, it's a shame that the outside stuff involving the election and an underdeveloped subplot concerning TV reporter Madison never seems to go anywhere.
