Texico, New Mexico isn’t on the map. It’s small town Americana, quickly disappearing to reckless abandon, waste and the short attention spans of a nation more interested in their own selfish desires than they are of a few hundred residents of depressed burg smack dab in the middle of proverbial nowhere.

Kevin Costner and Madeline Carroll in Touchstone Pictures' Swing Vote

That all changes when a fluke irregularity leaves out of work beer-guzzling single father Ernest ‘Bud’ Johnson (Kevin Costner) as the lone swing vote deciding the most hotly contested U.S. Presidential Election since Bush vs. Gore. With his frazzled and exasperated 12-year-old daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll) trying to keep him focused on the issues the childish undereducated adult suddenly has the sitting Commander-in-Chief (Kelsey Grammar) and his Democratic challenger (Dennis Hopper) pounding on his door looking for support, the entire country and world looking on agog as this man who apparently cares about nothing now finds himself with the only vote that counts.

Swing Vote is a far better movie then I originally gave anticipated it to be. It’s far-fetched premise aside (talk about suspending your disbelief), this is a film that has something to say and, by and large, it even has the guts the majority of the time to actually voice it. With the backdrop of an election year quickly reaching a crescendo in front of us (and the memories of the longest primary season in electoral history barely in our rearview mirrors), the picture also couldn’t be timelier, the idea that every vote counts and that every American has the right to have their voice heard concepts I think everyone can agree upon.

The thing is, director and co-writer Joshua Michael Stern doesn’t always keep things as focused as they should be, the tone of the project wavering mightily from here to there and back again with all the subtlety of an elephant proudly marching through an Iowa corn field. It’s just as unlikely, too. He and fellow scribe Jason Richman have so much they want to do and say that a lot of the interpersonal melodrama gets lost amidst the Sturm und Drang, the underlying relationships between father and daughter never as heartfelt or as believable as the political rhetoric surrounding it.

Pity, because somewhat shockingly I adored a great deal of this. While the points aren’t exactly new (political parties have lost their way, candidates will say anything to get elected and mass media is more concerned with sensationalism then they are with truth), that they still say it with such matter-of-fact (some could even say cynical) honesty actually is. Red or Blue, Liberal or Conservative, Right or Left, each side is given equal skewering, and no matter what end of the political spectrum viewers reside there is plenty of fodder here for both to come away with items to discuss.

The thing is, there’s just too much of it, and by the time the story decides to get down to it and build to a Capra-esque climax there have been so many different plots, subplots, sub-subplots and side characters it’s almost a little bit difficult to care. Worse, with so much going on in the background Bud and Molly’s foreground saga never grows the emotional wings it needs to soar, their journey of reconciliation and love painfully lost amidst all the sloganeering and electoral hurly-burly.

As for the cast, no matter what you can say about the script’s central deficiencies you can’t do the same thing about the actors bringing it to life. Little Carroll makes a precociously endearing debut, Hopper gets his best role in ages and old pros Stanely Tucci and Nathan Lane have a glorious time transforming their stock characters into something a bit more intriguing and complicated.

The big surprise, though, is Grammar. I really liked him, his somewhat befuddled and kind of stereotypical Republican President slowly and elegantly morphing into a far more interesting and complicated politico then I had at first anticipated. This is great work for the former “Cheers” and “Frasier” star, the man good enough he almost makes me believe that politicians, no matter what their ideological stripe, really do have the country’s best interests in their hearts when they decide to run for office.

I’m not forgetting Costner mainly because there isn’t that much to say. Truth be told I thought he was just terrific in this, but considering his best roles have all had a somewhat populist bent to them that’s really not much of a surprise. Like his work in Bull Durham, Tin Cup, Field of Dreams, The Upside of Anger and Open Range Bud is a man right up the superstar’s alley, and to say he knocks it clean out of the park probably isn’t all that shocking.

It’s too bad then that this is a movie I admire and appreciate more than I actually enjoy. While it is entertaining and informative in parts, moments of it so grandly enjoyable I couldn’t help but smile, in its entirety I’m just not sure what to say. I guess, if I was in the booth and had to make a decision, I’d probably give Swing Vote a nod towards the affirmative, I’d just make sure my ballot had a chad left hanging before turning it in.

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

- reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle

Additional Links

-  Swing Vote Theatrical Trailer