Review: Swing Vote

   
    Movie of the Week (3/17/13-3/23/13): Swing Vote was an underrated movie in 2008 starring Kevin Costner. This film is about a man in New Mexico who is the town drunk and continues to let down his friends and his only daughter. During the 2004 election for the President his daughter wants him to vote, which he never does, but he is late and she sneaks in to try and cast his vote for him. But, the machine fails during the process and thus the vote is never cast and that is where we have our movie. It turns out it is up to Bud Johnson, Kevin Costner, to determine the next President of the United States.
    This movie has a great cast in it, which makes it that much better. We have Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci, Judge Reinhold, and Paula Patton. Kelsey Grammer plays President Andrew Boone up for reelection and he delivers a very good performance showing moments of comedy and seriousness. Dennis Hopper plays Donald Greenleaf, who is running against Boone for President and he too gives us a more serious performance with the occasional mix in of comedy. Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci both play the campaign managers for each candidate. These two play the more serious role overall for the movie because they both want to win and will do whatever it takes, very good performances from both.
    Judge Reinhold is the trusty friend of Bud Johnson who has his back and is there for him when things go wrong and helps him through some of the tough situations, even if it is in the tough love way. Paula Patton is the reporter who wants the "big break story" and tries to get it through Bud by using his daughter Molly, played by Madeline Carroll who gives us a great tearjerker performance. Finally, we have Kevin Costner who probably gives us one of his best performances. He really does a great job in this role and you can tell that he embraces it because the more the movie goes on the more emotional it gets, which causes it to land on his shoulders, and he carries it very well.
    From the beginning we know that the movie is about more than just an election, it's about family, friendship, and trust. During the movie the bonding between Bud and Molly is what the focus is on as she struggles to help her father become more responsible with things, even when the whole country is watching him. We get to see what the candidates are going through and what they do to win the election and we can see that it affects their families as well. We see the development of the politicians very nicely, whether it be for the good or for the bad.
    The movie also looks very good, I like to describe it as "colorful" because the cinematography brings out so much of the colors and makes the movie feel good. Even though it is a feel good movie it has a very good score, a score that helps with the mood very well in the emotional scenes and in the funny or happy scenes, especially at the end. You will know the wonderful piano rhythm when you hear it. With all of this mixed very nicely together this movie will make you smile in one scene and cry in another, which is what movies are all about. This is a well acted, scored, and emotional family friendly movie and by the end I'm sure you'll cast your vote for this film as well. 3/4 Stars.