{"id":11569,"date":"2010-11-17T20:43:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T12:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/11\/17\/swing-vote\/"},"modified":"2018-03-14T10:43:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T02:43:00","slug":"swing-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/11\/17\/swing-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Swing Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swing Vote<\/em><\/strong> (2008) \u2013 on rental. I’ve caught a lot of great films this year, many of which slipped under my radar during their theatrical run, but fortunately not on DVD rental. With the end of the year fast approaching, if I had to name a single film that is the current runner for the most moving, thought-provoking yet funny film I\u2019ve seen this year, it\u2019s this one \u2013 Swing Vote<\/em>, a not very well-known film made just two years ago.<\/p>\n

The setting of the film is something that incidentally is very familiar to us Singaporeans right this point in time. It\u2019s Election Year in the United States with a hotly contested fight between the incumbent President, Republican Andy Boone (Kelsey Grammer from Frasier<\/em>), and the Democrat challenger and presidential candidate, Donald Greenleaf (the late Dennis Hooper).<\/p>\n

Somewhere in a small town in New Mexico is the politically apathetic Bud Johnson \u2013 played by Kevin Costner \u2013 who works as an egg packer during the day, and is drunk at most other times. He\u2019s also a marginal and single parent to his daughter Molly \u2013 played by the very young Madeline Carroll \u2013 who\u2019s everything her slacker father isn\u2019t. Molly is smart, witty, has the great civic consciousness and is frequently disappointed by Bud in this score, but loves her Dad dearly anyway. Molly wants Bud to vote in the presidential election, and when he doesn\u2019t in yet another demonstration of his parental failings, she ties to vote in his stead. A computer glitch nullifies that vote attempt, and according to rules of the county they live in, he\u2019s to recast his vote.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the spanner: when all the votes in the rest of the country has been counted, it\u2019s discovered that the most unusual situation has arisen: with both candidates split right down the middle, Bud\u2019s recast vote in 10 days will decide who will be the next President of the United States! The entire country\u2019s media circus, and both the President and opposing candidate and their Secret Services, campaign entourages all descend on the small town to wage an election campaign to convince one man that they each deserve his vote.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With memories of The West Wing<\/em> that are still reasonably fresh in my mind, it\u2019s thus delightful to watch a compact 2 hour film that gives viewers one perspective of the kind of things that election campaigns can become. It\u2019s win at all costs. Both presidential candidates are wise, morally grounded men worthy of the office. But their campaign managers \u2013 played with different personalities but yet similar final attentions of winning at all costs, and by Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane \u2013 both lay down ultimatums to their candidates: that if they don\u2019t do what they must to win, then all their plans for improving the state of affairs will never get past the theory stage. With the crazy political wrangling that comes about as both Boone and Greenleaf try to gain favor from the one man who\u2019ll decide between them, Bud loses sight of what it\u2019s all about\u2026 but not Molly \u2013 and it falls to her to do her bit to save her country by getting Bud to exercise elevated levels of intelligence and vote responsibly. Molly recognizes her Dad\u2019s failings, but tries to keep believing in him.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Once you get past the very unlikely scenario \u2013 statistically at least \u2013 that one man can decide an entire presidency, the film will suck you right in with its amazing performances all round, the witty script, and the moving theme of how a politically apathetic and near total loser of a man can indeed change for his daughter. While you get a touch-and-go introduction to many of the electoral issues that get campaigned on, including homosexuality, immigration, the environment, pro-life\/pro-choice, that\u2019s not what the film is really about at heart. It\u2019s the father-daughter relationship between Bud and Molly that comes through the most and will leave you with the biggest impression by the film\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

The cast is uniformly excellent, and in a smart piece of writing and acting, neither presidential candidates are portrayed to be better than the other. Even the two campaign managers \u2013 both of whom badly want to win \u2013 are not portrayed as unethical sleazebags either. You can see where they\u2019re coming from. I was also surprised to see Nana Visitor \u2013 whom I remember from Star Trek: DS9<\/em> from nearly a decade ago \u2013 in the film too. She has a single but tremendously important scene when she as Greenleaf\u2019s wife reminds him what he stands for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But stealing the show out from the veteran adult cast is Madeline Carroll, who possess a passing resemblance to Emma Watson (Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter <\/em>films). She was 11 years old when the film was made, but is fully capable of harnessing and displaying the full emotional range of an adult actor. She has two scenes where you\u2019d be moved to tears: when she defends her father in front of her class, and when she looks for her mother to fulfill the parental role when she believes Bud can no longer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny that after nearly a year watching, at my best guess, about 170 films this year, the best film I\u2019ve watched so far is one that rates just 6.1 on IMDB, and I liked it even more than Inglorious Basterds<\/em><\/a> and My Sister’s Keeper<\/em><\/a>. You don\u2019t need to have an interest in the American Presidential Election to enjoy Swing Vote<\/em>. If you want a film which has equal dosages of comedic moments and non-contrived moments where you\u2019d cry, and with great performances all round, this is it. If I could only award this film six <\/em>stars\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swing Vote (2008) \u2013 on rental. I’ve caught a lot of great films this year, many of which slipped under my radar during their theatrical run, but fortunately not on DVD rental. With the end of the year fast approaching,<\/p>\n

Read More Swing Vote<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-entertainment","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}