So ridiculous, it just might happen
Release date: 1 August 2008
By Jerilyn Covert
Amid a box office lineup that includes superhero blockbusters, fantasy adventures, and a much anticipated science fiction sequel comes a film with a really fantastical premise–in which an entire presidential election boils down to just one vote. But before you decide to allocate your $9 toward a movie that’s a bit more realistic, like part three of The Mummy, consider casting your ballot for something unique. Swing Vote is a heartwarming comedy with a serious message, heavily tempered by Kevin Costner’s lovable “Oh, shit” demeanor and the dynamic between him and adorable newcomer Madeline Carroll, cast as the daughter whose political idealism would border on naiveté if she weren’t, in fact, smarter than many of the adults in the film. When an electronic voting machine at a polling booth in Texaco, New Mexico, is accidentally unplugged, one vote is lost. The voter name registered on the bum ticket: Earnest “Bud” Johnson (Costner), who like many of the townspeople, is unemployed, drinks a lot, and drifts through life on a gale of apathy. Suddenly, the two-party system that for so long has failed the working poor, has to win over the very man who epitomizes the group–well, except for the “working” part. With that, an implausible yet relevant tale unfolds in this uplifting, blue-collar-comedy-meets-political-satire account of how one ordinary man can impact the future of the free world.
Given the close outcomes of the most recent presidential elections, perhaps the American people have never been so split down the middle. Still, even the narrowest of margins can differ by thousands–a far cry from single digits, let alone a single vote. In a move surely meant to add a measure of credence, director Joshua Michael Stern and his crew recruited a slew of real-life celebrities and commentators, including Richard Petty, Willie Nelson, Larry King, Bill Maher, Matt Frei, James Carville, Tucker Carlson, and Campbell Brown, all of whom appear in the film as themselves. Meanwhile, the fictional characters generally come off comedic yet human. Just as the film’s premise takes real-life events to levels of preposterousness, so do the pandering and political ploys of each candidate reach hyperbolic degrees of absurdity. Take one scene in which Democratic candidate Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) secretly reads cue cards from his campaign manager (Nathan Lane) as he feigns a knowledge of fishing to impress Bud. Or when Republican incumbent President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer), in a complete policy reversal, officially declares Bud’s favorite fishing lake as a national wildlife preserve. More over-the-top still is when Greenleaf films an anti-abortion ad in which little children on a playground literally begin to implode, one by one, into ominous black puffs of smoke. Eventually, things become so dire that the President’s close, political advisor (Stanley Tucci) suggests bribing Bud. In a lesser film, such characters might veer into starkness, but here no one person is demonized. Rather, all–even Bud–are portrayed as equally blameworthy subjects in an imperfect political system.
The satirical edge is softened, however, by Costner’s casual, scruffy, I’m-just-an-ordinary-guy performance, and everything is held together by the glue that is Bud’s relationship with his daughter, Molly (Carroll). Ultimately, this is what the story is about: the struggling home life of a very bright girl who acts like an adult and her deadbeat father who acts like a child. Though their relationship may be dysfunctional, it’s also genuine and heartfelt. Bud’s love for his daughter is as obvious as the fact that he’ll never win a Father of the Year award. In one scene, as Bud contemplates confessing something illegal, related to his vote, Molly quickly intervenes, reminding him that, one more felony, and she’d be taken away from him. To this, Bud replies, “You’re right. I am down to one.” Ultimately, Bud endears himself to us the moviegoers but doesn’t give us much reason to believe he’s little more than a screw-up.At least, not until the end. As the film glides into a slightly more somber tone, Bud begins to realize the gravity of his impending decision and the hope he represents for so many Americans, who’ve sent him truckloads of letters asking for help. As the world becomes increasingly obsessed with Bud, he begins to see himself through the eyes of the media: an incompetent man who happens to have the future of the country resting on his shoulders. As the film sobers up, so does Bud, and the movie culminates with a moving speech delivered by Bud to a nationwide audience. The speech effectively summarizes the film’s message, and, shortly thereafter, the movie ends in the only way that it could. Thus, Swing Vote takes the world as we know it and pushes it into the realm of outrageousness, holding up an exaggerated mirror to the cynical public and showing us that a single vote does in fact count for something.