Twelve-year-old Molly is learning about civics in her fifth-grade classroom. And that’s about where this movie belongs. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie, if you’re trying to teach voters about their civic duty and how in a billion-to-one fluke their votes might actually count. I do hope a G-rated version of the film gets shown in schools. Who knows? The kids might pay attention. But most people don’t want a refresher civics lesson, judging by the fifteen people in the theater with me. Then again, that might just be because I went to the movies on a Monday afternoon in the middle of Pennsylvania. That’s right, your Film Nerd Intern is back East, trying not to pay LA rents while she doesn’t have an LA job. Kevin Costner stars as down-and-out single dad Bud Johnson. His slightly below-average ordinariness is fun and just a little touching (especially to someone on the fringes of employment herself?), and his performance is what keeps the picture rolling. While the events surrounding him are unbelievable, his idea of what a kinda selfish, kinda goodhearted ordinary guy does when hit with sudden fame, is utterly believable. And the predictable redeeming moment at the end even strikes me as something that should strike a few more guys like Bud. But why he put up 20 million to play this part…who knows? Paula Patton, Kelsey Grammar, and Dennis Hopper are all interesting in their struggles between politics and humanity. Patton, especially, is sparkling and impossible to keep your eyes from in her role as small-town reporter trying to do everything within her moral power to get a desk in a big city. The new Madeline Carroll playing Molly is pretty good, although at the beginning I kept wondering whether her overacted little pouts were intentional. But who am I to say? Everyone starts somewhere, and right now a twelve-year-old has a lot more experience in the biz than me. Mine is more real, though. I have a degree and internships and rough entry-level positions ahead of me and she’s just a rich child star … not bitter. Not bitter at all. The sheer silliness of the whole campaign process becomes much clearer when the vote to court is just one guy. This isn’t a film about big ideas or grand social theories. It just shows the human – or inhuman – side of personal politics. The Republican promises gay marriage because Bud says he thinks it’s okay, while the Democrat makes a pro-life promo because Bud says pro-life sounds pretty good – he doesn’t even know what the term means, politically. But we all know the candidates won’t care about what they promised Bud as soon as they get in office and his vote can’t hurt them anymore. The movie just goes to show that campaign politics is rather pointless. A bit refreshing, given the grand social criticism of most other political films. Still, not enough to get me to see it again until I encounter a class full of fifth-graders. Unless, of course, I get hired to work on a sequel. Then Swing Vote II: the Impeachment is what I’m all about! -Sharon Campbell, Film Nerd Intern
