A very timely movie, the recent Hollywood flick Swing Vote (2008) tries to capitalize on the ongoing race to US presidential election, with Obama and Mrs Hillary Clinton heating things up. The satirical route taken to depict political realities when a nation goes to polls is a kind of wearying as towards the end it focuses more on personal grievance handling than on larger issues.
Greeting us on-screen are Kevin Costner as Bud Johnson and Madeline Carroll as his 5th grade daughter Molly settled in the tiny, impoverished town in New Mexico. A degenerate, barely-employed, drunkard father is persuaded by an intelligent, responsible daughter to vote in the presidential election. The latter in a drunken fit fails to turn up on the D-day and the melodrama heightens thereafter. The clever and politically conscious Molly somehow manages to sneak past the dozing poll officer to cast a vote in the name of her father. However, a machine malfunction leaves the vote half stuck as polling comes to a close.
This is followed by a frenzied rush for Bud’s vote by the hot seat contenders. The camera zooms in on the wretched man’s dwelling and the world waits with bated breath. Who would get the swing vote when it is recast? A new face of political Leviathan raises its head as the hopefuls for presidential vote start jostling to grab Bud’s vote. Political lust, odious pandering, coarse commercials, and mean servility smear the face of civil existence. Good intentions, funny moments, annoying times, political follies and never-ending ambitions - ”Swing Vote” stirs up a cacophony of human realities.
Towards the end, Bud gives a long-winded, grandiloquent speech punctuated by wisdom tooth and honest yearning to bring about some real change against the canvas of US presidential run. The fate of swinging vote, however, remains dangling as the flick disappears in the flower of speech. Nice performance Kevin, after a long hiatus! Wake up all you fellas- Realize the power to make a difference wherever you are!
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Tags: 2008 election, 2008 presidential poll, Bud Johnson, democratic election, Hollywood, Joshua Michael Stern, Kevin Costner, Madeline Carroll, Molly, presidential campaign, presidential issues, presidential results, Presidential vote, Republican election, Swing Vote(2008), Touchstone Pictures, US election, US Polls