Swing Vote (Touchstone Pictures)
This Swing Is A Miss
Kevin Costner was once the crown prince of Hollywood. He was the golden boy who acted and directed. Then along came Waterworld and a series of other less than great movies and his career was in the toilet. He is still making movies but the glow has turned into a pale reflection of the career that once was. Movies like his latest Swing Vote show we havent missed much by his plunge into the unknown depths.
In this foul-mouthed, grating movie Costner plays Earnest Bud Johnson, a divorced dad raising a daughter named Molly (Madeline Carroll). Bud is a wastrel who neglects his daughter, cant hold a job, and isnt reliable in the least. His daughter is the opposite of him and tries to influence her father to do better. She even registers him to vote.
Bud doesnt show up to vote so Molly votes for him. Then there is a problem with the voting machine and somehow Buds vote becomes critical to the Presidential election. While waiting for him to re-vote the two candidates for President (Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper) begin to woo him for his vote. This insane plot might be tolerable if the movie were to have a point, but it doesnt.
It seems Costner thought he was going to be a Mr. Deeds or some other Capra-esque charmer. The writers however paint Bud as a charmless loser and one no one wants to see for more than five minutes. The candidates are also losers as are Buds worthless friends. Only Molly is worth watching and she cries a lot. No wonder!
There is a scene towards the end of the film where Bud shuffles toward redemption but with all the worthlessness he has shown earlier it is not believable or convincing. Bud is too much of a loser to gain insight overnight.
Costner is repulsively stupid as Bud. He has an aw shucks demeanor but there seems to be a cruel streak underneath. He creates a character who makes no effort to be a stable parent for Molly and would rather drink and loaf than be any sort of adult.
The one person you would like to see more of in the film is Mare Winningham who plays Buds ex-wife. You only get a brief glimpse of her but she piques your interest. Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane who are usually interesting in any roles they take are not so in this film.
The film is rated PG-13 for too much profanity. If they had cleaned up the language and tried to make it a family film then the movie would have been a little more enjoyable. It still would have had the non-ending ending but maybe the road to the end would have been better.
In this election year a family comedy about trying to make the political system better would have been welcome. But having a drunken, profanity spouting dad trying to teach us something positive is a joke. And in the case of Swing Vote the joke is not funny.
I scored Swing Vote a chad ridden 3 out of 10.
