"Swing Vote" (A delayed review)

This past weekend ended up being such a bust. My best friend was supposed to be in town on Saturday, so I had reserved that day to see her. Due to car problems beyond our control, she didn't end up coming (sad!).

So Josh & I made plans with 2 other friends to walk the Freedom Trail during the day. I went to college in the area and now live here, yet I had never walked it. Well, thanks to missed phone calls and prior plans, we didn't end up walking it (instead we had lunch and played Guitar Hero for a bit).

So by the time Sunday rolled around, Josh & I just wanted to do SOMETHING to enjoy the actual nice weather we were having (for those who don't know, Boston and the surrounding areas have been hit with at least 8 days straight of rain. Right now, it's gorgeous & sunny out - knock on wood! - and we don't know what to do with ourselves).

We are going to be away a lot over the next few weeks, so our thoughts of a day trip to Rockport or the Cape were shot down. The aquarium is expensive and we figured it would be packed with kids. Ultimately, we decided to see a $5 movie. Which one? Well, none of the options were stellar, so we settled on "Swing Vote."

I felt this would be interesting to see, being about a presidential election and this being a presidential election year, and I was right.

The plot: Kevin Costner (who I'm a fan of) plays Bud Johnson, a somewhat-alcoholic, down-on-his-luck guy who gets taken care of by his young daughter, Molly (played by Madeline Carroll).

Molly is smart and loves school, especially politics. She registers Bud to vote and tells him to show up at the polls - it's extremely important to her. Bud instead gets drunk, after getting fired, and does remember about Molly, but passes out instead.

Realizing Bud has let her down once again, Molly decides to vote for him and manages to sneak into the poll booth. However, as soon as she inserts the card and goes to vote (for who!?! I wondered), a power outage occurs and she flees from the scene.

Cut to later that night and a knock on Bud's door by 2 political higher-ups informs him he is allowed to retake his vote and - this is where the movie starts to loose me, btw - the fate of the election rests on his 1 vote. The ENTIRE country is in a stalemate. Yeah. Right.

Bud is given 10 days to revote (um, why 10 days??? Why not, I don't know ... IMMEDIATELY!?) and this of course, causes the 2 presidential hopefuls - current Republican President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammar) with aide Martin Fox (Stanley Tucci) and Democratic candidate Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) with aide Art Crumb (Nathan Lane).

I looove Tucci & Lane, and they both turned in wonderful performances. In fact, I thought the great cast all did a good job, it was just the plot that was eh. Besides the 10 days issue, I thought it was ridiculous that the movie had both candidates flip-flopping their views based on every comment to escape the dimwitted Bud's mouth, purely to win his vote. Quite the commentary on our political/presidential system, no?

Several months ago, I read the "The Race," by Richard North Patterson. I found this to be such a more interesting insight into our political process.

"Swing Vote" is fun and enjoyable, but definitely not worth the $10 to see in a theater. Save this for On Demand - preferably when it's free!