(Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that you could see Russia from Alaska? Just asking...)
CAST: Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, Woody Harrelson, Jamey Sheridan, Sarah Poulson, Ron Livingston, Peter MacNicol, David Barry Gray.
DIRECTOR: Jay Roach
WARNING: Several dozen cringe-inducing moments (and we weren't even part of the campaign) straight ahead...
IT'S LIKE THIS: Remember how we discussed the enigmas that are Johnny Depp and Will Smith in our reviews for DARK SHADOWS (review #459 ) and MEN IN BLACK 3 (review #461). Well, in our latest review, we turn our attention to the mystery that is Sarah Palin. Well, "mystery" or "enigma" might be a bit of a stretch for the former Republican Vice Prez candidate. Perhaps "carnival attraction" or "three-ring circus" might be a more fitting description. Our next review is GAME CHANGE, which is based on the book by the same name.
But here's the kicker: the book was actually about so much more than Sarah Palin - it was about the entire 2008 Presidential Campaign, both elephant and donkey side. It also had entire sections on Hilary Clinton, President Obama, Joe Biden (or "O'Biden" as La Palin would say) and John McCain. The producers behind the movie, however, realized where the real juicy stuff (and dirt) was, and decided to jettison all the boring stuff and focus exclusively on the astonishingly incredible chapters of Madame Palin. If anyone actually gave a shit about Sarah Palin, they would almost say she was being picked on by this method of adapting the book. But they don't, so they didn't.
Anyhow, GAME CHANGE traces the rise of Sarah Palin from being the Governor of Alaska/wife/Wasilla MILF to ending up on the Republican ticket as could-be-Vice Prez/wife/possible screeching banshee MILF. It's all here, folks: the campaigners slowly realizing with abject horror that Sarah P. knows as much about World Events, Foreign Policy, and Global History as I do about abstinence and American football; the excruciating interviews with Katie Couric and others where we learned that Russia is a lot closer to the U.S. than originally thought; the revelation that the background check of Madame Palin took about as long as it takes to boil an egg; the behind-the-scenes brouhahas, including the lovely one where uber-aide Nicole Wallace (Sarah Poulson) pretty much tells strategist Steven Schmidt (Woody Harrelson) that she'd rather have a bottle rocket shot up her ass before working with La Palin ever again. Ouch.
So... how will this all end? Will Madame Palin end up becoming this great nation's vice president - even if my cats Casper and Guido know more about current events than she does? Will the Republican party continue to keep her on the ticket even after realizing the colossal bonehead blunder they committed in choosing her? Or will they do the noble thing and drop her ass? Will Barack and Joe triumph?
Well, unless you slipped into a coma before the election in 2008, you know exactly what happened. But if you believe in alternate universes, there's conceivably one out there where the utterance "Vice President Palin" is a daily occurrence. Go ahead - it's okay to tremble with fear.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Whatever your personal feelings for Sarah Palin and her role in the 2008 presidential campaign, the one thing you have to admit after seeing this film is that GAME CHANGE does an even-handed and fair job of portraying her - and Julianne Moore refuses to give us a feature-length impression or caricature. Instead, Moore digs deep and gives us a full-bodied and full-blooded performance that reveals all of Palin's sides: her enthusiasm, arrogance, vulnerability, flaws, drive, mistakes, and humor. Anyone concerned about watching a two-hour long riff on Tina Fey's hilarious impersonation of Palin can rest easy: in GAME CHANGE, we see a human being - not a cartoon.
If the book version of GAME CHANGE was indeed factual, as it is touted to be, then the 2008 Republican Republican Presidential Campaign must have been quite the harrowing ride. As with the best dramatic cinematic moments, the most effective scenes are the seemingly small nuggets: Steven Schmidt and Nicole Wallace slowly realizing that Sarah Palin knows next to nothing about foreign policy; a crack team being quickly assembled to school Palin "overnight" on everything she needs to know about World History; Palin slowly buckling under all the pressure and refusing to participate in vital preparatory sessions with Paulson; Paulson being unfairly blamed later by Palin for her own non-participation; and the gracious and diplomatic Paulson finally becoming fed up and asking to be transferred back to McCain's side.
The more notorious incidents - such as the infamous Katie Couric interview - are also re-enacted here, and they are just as cringe-inducing, but they also tend to overshadow the smaller but just as trenchant moments listed above. Most audiences will seek out those infamous moments, because those are the ones they are most familiar with. But GAME CHANGE refuses to take the simple route of lambasting Palin and pigeonholing her into an easy niche. Instead, it and Moore play fair by also showing Palin's devotion to her family, as well as her eventual understanding that she is in over her head. There's a nice scene before Palin steps out to give her nomination acceptance speech, where she quietly clasps Wallace's hand with her head bowed, and Wallace looks at her with sisterly support and gives her words of encouragement.
But they also don't let her off the hook for the eventual hubris and narcissism that overtakes and ultimately proves to be her undoing after her resurgence in the polls following the successful debates with Joe Biden. In short, GAME CHANGE is not interested in portraying Sarah Palin in one simple judgmental color. It paints her in many contradictory shades - and leaves it up to us to come to our own conclusions. A friend of mine who also saw the film said he felt the movie couldn't make up it's mind about whether to paint Palin as a victim, heroine, or villainess. My response: "It paints her as all of those things - because she's human." As I mentioned before, GAME CHANGE refuses to take the easy route.
Ed Harris is just as strong as Moore in portraying John McCain as a man of many levels. In his hands, McCain is both a tenacious bulldog and a gracious gentleman, and Harris makes both sides of the character ring true. He is especially great in a scene with Woody Harrelson's Steven Schmidt where he admits that Palin was essentially thrown into the deep end. And as with Moore and Palin, Harris is made to resemble McCain to such a degree that you forget you are watching an actor playing a role; it's like you are watching the actual person.
Woody Harrelson, Sarah Paulson, Ron Livingston, Peter MacNicol, and Jamey Sheridan all give solid turns are the various members of the Republican campaign who slowly realize their missteps - and desperately try to enforce increasingly complicated forms of damage control. Harrelson and Paulson are the real standouts as, respectively: (1) the brilliant strategist Steven Schmidt who initially broached the idea of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate; and (2) Nicole Wallace, the sharply brilliant aide who does everything she can to help Palin, but ultimately gives up. Schmidt and Wallace have a nice scene towards the end where Wallace confesses to Schmidt that she refused to vote - because she didn't want to cast a vote for someone she couldn't believe in - and is ashamed about it. In a movie wherein the best scenes mostly involve Moore as Palin, Harrelson and Paulson elevate this brief exchange as top contender.
In the end, the 2008 Presidential Campaign will go down in history for many remarkable reasons, the top two being: (1) the first African-American candidate to not only run but also be successfully elected; and (2) the whole controversy of Sarah Palin. And GAME CHANGE does a very good job of exploring the latter.
