Bringing The Substance Without The Empathy, Game Change Is Good, Not Great!

The Good: Acting, Historical/insider information
The Bad: Fails to make any of the protagonists at all empathetic, Mixed media
The Basics: Game Change is not at all a timeless look at the 2008 presidential election from the Republican side.


Two summers ago, while my wife and I were working in different cities, she had access to cable television (whereas I did not). One night, she saw the film Game Change on HBO and for more than a year, she was telling me how I absolutely had to see the film. Our local library finally managed to get the movie in on DVD and we watched it immediately. I can see why she was excited: Julianne Moore does a startlingly good interpretation of Sarah Palin and offers a nice alternative to the slightly over-the-top Tina Fey presentation.

Game Change is a biography produced for HBO and it is worth noting that for all my love of politics, I am not intimately aware of the backroom dealings involved with making Sarah Palin the vice presidential candidate. I saw her public blunders, but the subject of Game Change is the behind-the-scenes Sarah Palin and McCain campaign; I’ll have no commentary on how the film stacks up as a historical document (for truth). That said, Game Change is entertaining, but it fails to make its protagonist empathetic. If anything, Game Change illustrates how little control John McCain had over his own campaign, how problematic a variable Sarah Palin was and how poorly Palin was prepared for a national campaign.

After a particularly rough Republican primary season, John McCain surprises the pundits to gain the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2008. After the campaign accidentally leaks McCain’s plan to put Democrat Joseph Lieberman on the ticket with him, McCain appeals to his campaign leadership – Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis – to find a celebrity-style candidate to run opposite Obama to stop the hemorrhage of voters to the Democrats. With a limited vetting process, Schmidt suggests that McCain take Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, as his running mate. Sarah Palin leaps onto the ticket and instantly energizes the campaign.

Unfortunately, as Palin’s handler, Nicolle Wallace soon discovers, Sarah Palin is not only inexperienced and ill-informed, she has serious issues with her public record and her personal behavior which jeopardizes the McCain/Palin ticket. Palin chastises Wallace for trying to inform her about current events and Wallace resigns from working with Palin out of disgust after multiple public embarrassments. As Palin stumbles through the debates and the Katie Couric interview, the polling numbers for McCain begin to drop and soon the campaign is in an unfortunate freefall from which it never recovers.

Game Change is as frightening as it is insightful. Watching Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace try desperately to frame Sarah Palin as a viable candidate shows some internal political action that most of us are not privy to. That Schmidt becomes far more empathetic than Palin becomes exceptionally problematic for the narrative. That Palin is not an enjoyable or interesting character to watch makes for a troubling trend as far as the story goes. The viewer never starts rooting for Palin or McCain – even knowing the outcome of the election. Unlike Argo (reviewed here!), Game Change lacks real dramatic tension or characters who the viewer cares about.

Also problematic is the way that Game Change incorporates real historical footage with actors from the film. People like Katie Couric appear in historical footage and director Jay Roach replaces real footage of McCain and Palin with their actor counterparts. That makes for an awkward dialectic that is troubling to watch. There is not a seamless quality to flipping between real people and actors.

What Game Change has to make it truly shine is amazing acting. Ed Harris is a strong enough actor to make even a liberal like watching John McCain. Sarah Paulson and Peter MacNicol give amazing supporting performances as Nicolle Wallace and Rick Davis. Paulson says so much with her face that she makes the ending of the film truly land solidly.

Woody Harrelson is wonderful as Steve Schmidt. Having never seen any real, historical, footage of Schmidt, I have no idea how well his performance mimics the real person. However, Harrelson has gravitas on screen that completely sells his plausibility as a high-powered political operator. The story for Game Change, of course, is Julianne Moore. Moore plays Palin and the best possible compliment one can give her is that Moore always seems like she is playing Sarah Palin, not Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin.

On DVD, Game Change features a commentary track and a featurette, neither of which make Sarah Palin a more empathetic character. While Game Change shows how devastating watching Fey must have been for Sarah Palin, the film does little else to humanize the former vice presidential candidate and make the viewer care about her personal struggle . . . or the way she (arguably) cost John McCain the election.

For other works that are or were on HBO, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Veep - Season 1
Game Of Thrones - Season 3
Girls - Season 1
Carnivale
True Blood - Season Five
Rome
Extras
Six Feet Under
Sex & The City - Season Three
Da Ali G Show
Jim Henson's The Storyteller

6/10

Check out how this film compares to others I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page where the films are organized from best to worst!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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After A Good Start, The Campaign Becomes Stubbornly Mediocre.

The Good: Humor, Zach Galifianakis’s performance, Initial plot
The Bad: In the middle, it stops being as funny
The Basics: Not a bad Will Ferrell comedy, The Campaign starts as a smart treatise on American politics before degenerating into a very standard comedy film.


Now that the 2012 election cycle is finally over, my wife and I took in the latest Will Farrell magnum opus, The Campaign. My wife is a big fan of Will Farrell and I tend to enjoy politically-themed movies. For sure, I never expected The Campaign to be as civically-minded as, for example, Swing Vote (reviewed here!), but given how the comedy actually begins with some decent moments that imply the importance of political activism, the movie quickly raised my hopes. Sadly, though, for as good as The Campaign begins, it quickly degenerates into a very standard Will Farrell comedy.

Actually, The Campaign stops being funny right around the middle as it strives for absurd humor instead of keeping a tight, political comedy that worked. After a time, The Campaign simply drags and recycles its own jokes.

Cam Brady is a North Carolina Congressman in the House of Representatives who spews obvious slogans and has affairs with young women who show up at his ridiculous campaign rallies. Looking forward to his next unopposed election to the House, Cam is shocked when the odd local, Marty Huggins applies to run against him. Supported by the Motch brothers, who have an agenda to turn the district into a Chinese sweatshop district, Marty begins a campaign, ostensibly to make his former politician father less disappointed in him.

While the odds seem exceptionally long for Marty, calling Cam out on his non-answer at their first debate gives the outsider some real support. That support is quickly increased when Marty accidentally punches a baby following the debate. As the neck and neck campaign commences, both Marty and Cam try various tactics that further take their campaigns away from the issues and gut their integrity.

The Campaign has some smart issues, but it buries them so far down as to make one think they were more of an afterthought. For example, writers Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell insert the idea that the Motch Brothers run the company that makes the voting machines. This is a very real problem, as made obvious by politics in Ohio. Yet, The Campaign refuses to actually address this serious issue. It appears near the climax of the film as a single, visual joke and it does not quite work as well as it could have because it is not followed up on with anything remotely resembling intelligent discourse.

Such is the real folly of The Campaign; it starts off with decent issues – the corruption of American politics by big business and the importance of people actually joining in the political process – but then ignores them in order to make silly jokes that slowly bleed the film dry. Using Cam to hit a dog late in the film feels less clever than like a motif and the fact that Mitzi goes through with sleeping with him seems unfathomable, despite the fact that the writers do continue to have her character frustratingly mention that she wishes Marty was around more.

The Campaign is seldom about actual character development; it is very predictable on that front and in no way audacious.

Fortunately, the acting in The Campaign is solid. John Lithgow seems professional in a way that I’ve not seen him in other films of late. Far away from the doddering, aging characters, like the one he played in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (reviewed here!) , Lithgow seems like exactly what he is supposed to: a businessman in the prime of his power.

Zach Galifianakis shows a delightfully ridiculous side as Marty Huggins that is different enough from his other fool or ridiculous characters that makes him seem distinctive and worth watching. The best that may be said about Will Ferrell is that he is not simply recapping his usual George W. Bush impersonations as Cam Brady. Ferrell’s character is a smart parody of John Edwards and he plays it well.

Ultimately, The Campaign is fine, but in no way exceptional. It is a fine cap to this year’s political season and worth one viewing, if not purchasing for one’s permanent collection.

For other political comedies, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The American President
American Dreamz
Man Of The Year

5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Criminally Un-Funny Kills Meet The Parents

The Good: Teri Polo's Acting
The Bad: Characters, Plot, Utter lack of humor
The Basics: A HUGE disappointment for a fun movie as it was horribly unfunny, Meet The Parents is utterly predictable and obviously plotted; only someone who has never seen a film would love this.


I went into Meet The Parents with high expectations: I like Robert De Niro and I've enjoyed Ben Stiller whenever I've seen him talking about his works. Add to that that he was a bright spot in the otherwise disappointing Mystery Men and truly great in his dramatic role in The Royal Tenenbaums (reviewed here!). Well, there's not living up to high expectations and then there's falling so far short that it detracts from my ever wanting to see a film with an actor/director/writer ever again. Meet The Parents is one such film.

Ben Stiller played Greg, a male nurse who wants to propose to Pam. He's on the verge of it when he finds out Pam's father likes being asked for permission. So, two weeks later, Greg and Pam go to visit Jack and his non-entity wife (Pam's mother). From there, Jack and Greg become involved with many capers that lead to the two forming an understanding. That's it, that's the extent of the plot.

It's pathetic. I thought it would be funny, it wasn't. The hijinks are contrived, the humor is forced, the situation isn't even silly funny, it's silly boring. The film isn't outrageous or original, it's dumb. It's not well written, it's not audacious, it's not well executed for what it is. That is, romantic comedies can still be well put together and even surprising. This film was neither. When it cannot be cerebrally funny - i.e. making jokes about Jack's work in the intelligence community - it degenerates quickly into slapstick humor, which I often find to be a low attempt to make people laugh. In this case, it uses the tried and dead jokes about an animal exchange and people on rooftops.

I thought this could be interesting, but no one rises to the occasion. The script is uninspired, so the actors have nowhere to go with the material and the whole film has the feeling that they know this and they've opted not to try. Everything is set up in such a way that the next scene is obvious to anyone who has a memory. From the beginning we know where the film is going and in the process, there are pointless episodes that don't add anything, including humor.

The bright spot was Teri Polo, who did the best job of acting. Her character was likable and actually interesting. Watching her was the single bright spot of this otherwise dreadful film. And it's not like her character is terribly funny, instead she just seems the most "real" of the people we're exposed to here.

The truth is, Meet The Parents is supposed to be a comedy. When I watch a comedy, I expect to laugh. I like comedies, I like laughing. When I go into a comedy with high expectations, I'm ready to laugh. A lot. I laughed twice watching this film and I only smiled one other time. This film is not worth your time; save it and let me be the only one to waste time on it.

For other works with Teri Polo, be sure to visit my reviews of:
The West Wing - Season Seven
The West Wing - Season Six
Sports Night
Northern Exposure - Season Six

1.5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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