Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Film Review: ‘Swing Vote,’ 2½ stars

After years of misfires, Kevin Costner’s finally hit upon a strategy to make himself likable in a movie: by playing someone completely unlikable.

Hey, whatever works.

But Costner’s better in “Swing Vote” than he has been in ages, playing a non-achieving, self-absorbed loser in whose hands rests the entire presidential election, thanks to a rather far-fetched accident.

Director Joshua Michael Stern, who co-wrote the screenplay, is at times confused about what the movie should be, and it predictably melts into a big puddle of feel-good political goo by the end. But during long stretches, “Swing Vote” is an entertaining, if lightweight, political satire that takes a few choice swipes at media coverage as well.

There’s also a father-daughter drama mixed in, aided considerably by the charms of newcomer Madeline Carroll as Costner’s 12-year-old daughter, long-suffering, yet wise and intelligent — the obvious grown-up in the family. That part of the film veers into a bizarre wrong turn that thankfully doesn’t last long. It’s much more effective in scenes such as the one in which Costner, thinking election officials are there to take his daughter away, whispers desperately that they can’t, “She’s my only good thing.”

Costner plays Ernest “Bud” Johnson, a loser who drinks his nights away in the small town of Texico, N.M., arriving late for work as an egg inspector on the days he shows up at all. His daughter, Molly (Carroll), is an outstanding student despite what appears to be near-criminal neglect. Her career goal — to be a veterinarian or chairwoman of the Federal Reserve — establishes her as the precocious sort of kid found almost exclusively in movies of this sort.

She wants Bud to vote, partly for a class project and partly because she truly believes it’s a person’s civic duty. Naturally, he blows it off, and while she is sneaking past the snoozing monitor and casting a vote in his name, the power briefly goes out, invalidating the ballot. Yet New Mexico law allows for him to cast his vote again. Meanwhile, the election has come down to New Mexico’s electoral votes, which will be decided, you guessed it, by Bud’s ballot.

The next thing you know, President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer), a Republican, and Democratic challenger Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) are descending upon Texico, aides and handlers in tow, promising the moon to Bud for his vote. A hungry media camps outside his trailer, waiting for ... something. Anything.

Unfortunately, Bud would actually have to get a little more involved to even qualify as apathetic, so ridiculously out-of-touch is he. His lack of knowledge of just about anything but beer and fishing comes to light through reports by local television reporter Kate Madison (Paula Patton), among others. His unwitting misrepresentation of his position on various issues — if he has any position at all — leads to bizarre political contortions, such as Republican Boone suddenly supporting gay marriage and Democrat Greenleaf opposing abortion (both flip-flops shown in funny commercials).

Bud enjoys the attention, but Molly’s onto the game. Fed up, at one point she decides to run away and visit her mother, a drugged-out Mare Winningham. It’s a depressing, twisted turn for the film that establishes nothing. We already know Molly’s unhappy. Why beat us over the head with tragedy?

You don’t need to have seen many movies to guess whether Bud gets his act together in time to cast his vote, or to make a fall-on-his-sword speech beseeching the candidates to be worthy of the office they seek.

Grammer is good as a seemingly shallow president with a conscience hidden down deep. Hopper is strangely muted, and a muted Hopper is hardly Hopper at all. But Costner and Carroll sail right along. “Swing Vote” is predictable, satire-light, but in an election season that already seems to have gone on forever — and it’s not even Labor Day — it’s a refreshing little bit of wish fulfillment, a nice break.

And for the first time in a long time, Costner’s performance gets our vote.

Rated: PG-13 for language.

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