Swing Vote: Court The Voters

Official Site: swingvote.movies.go.com
Director: Joshua Michael Stern
Writer: Joshua Michael Stern, and Jason Richman
Producer(s): Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson

Starring: Kevin Costner as Bud Johnson, Madeline Carroll as Molly Johnson, Paula Patton as Kate Madison, Kelsey Grammer as President Andrew Boone, Dennis Hopper as Donald Greenleaf, Nathan Lane as Art Crumb, Stanley Tucci as Martin Fox, and George Lopez as John Sweeney(IMDb). PG-13, 100 min.

Madison is waiting for her dad at the voting hall, and when she realizes that he forgot to pick her up so he could cast his vote, she became angry and decided to covertly vote on her dad's behalf. As she was about to vote, one of the attendants at the voting hall accidentally unplugged the machine, being frighten Madison ripped the stub off the voting ballot, and left. Later, Bud received a visit from the state officials to recast his vote, and from that point he was on his way to the spotlight.

I was not excited about seeing this film, but it was not so bad. I actually enjoyed it. Seeing Costner in that type of role was strange for me because he usually plays men who are relatively erudite. Bud was a simple man defined by unpleasant wage labor, and a bottle of beer, and Costner played Bud pretty well, although witnessing him in that role was an adjustment for me. Bud as the basis for social commentary could be described or expressed as the idea that politics is the science of understanding the simple man, and designing a campaign to capture the vote of that man, and, or, that, in an election everyone's vote matters.

The story was good, and I thought the ending of the film was just right. The pace of the film was such, that it kept one's attention, and the humor in the film also aided in keeping the movie watchers engaged. One of the main features of the movie was the depiction of manipulation on both sides of partisan politics. Oh! Madeline Carroll was amazing! According to Metacritic.com the film received mixed reviews, and Rottentomatoes.com gave the film 36 fresh tomatoes to 58 rotten ones thus far. I liked this film. I'll grade it a B. Stay tuned, movieporium.blogspot.com.