Swing Vote (***)

Directed By: Joshua Michael Stern
Starring: Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci
Seen: October 3rd 2008

*** Out of ****

Molly Johnson is fiercely political, even though she is just twelve years old. She strongly believes it’s everyone responsibility to vote. Her dad Bud (Costner) on the other hand, is basically the opposite. He really couldn’t care less about elections and all the hoopla that goes with it. Add to that his regular drinking (and just as regular passing out from it) and Molly has a bit of a conundrum on her hands when her dad is passed out minutes before the voting booths for the presidential election closes.

So what does Molly do? Vote on her father’s behalf, of course. But her luck doesn’t hold up as the voting machine malfunctions just as she casts her father’s vote. The next day the election results are being polled, and what do you know, it all comes down to one vote to see who wins the election, Bud’s faulty one. Now Bud has to recast his vote, and he is given some time to make his decision (again?). President Andrew Boone (Grammer) and his advisor Martin Fox (Tucci) fly out on Air Force One to meet Bud. His main opponent Donald Greenleaf (Hopper) and his advisor Art Crumb (Lane) also undergo the trip to meet Bud. The press also comes out in droves, since this is a big deal – one man will choose the next president of the United States of America.

Both candidates start wooing Bud, taking him driving in race cars, for meetings on Air Force One, fishing, and more and more. And as things progress, both candidates start doing things grinding up against their original ideologies, their original stance to get elected in the first place. And Bud is under increased pressure from everyone to pick someone, while trying to keep the truth about his vote under wraps too. Yet Bud remains stubbornly uninterested, and slowly starts losing favour with his daughter.

Luckily the film does not bring any decisions on politics into play, and does not even show you who Bud picks, but it does show us the lengths some officials will go to in order to win an election. The story is, however, not one about politics. That forms a huge backdrop for an endearing father-daughter tale that will have everyone leave the cinema with a warm heart. And that is what cinema is all about, is it not – it is supposed to entertain…