Swing Vote
2008, USA
Directed by Joshua Michael Stern
Written by Jason Richman, Joshua Michael Stern
Produced by Kevin Costner, Jim Wilson
Starring: Kevin Costner, Madeline Carroll, Paula Patton, Kelsey Grammer,
Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG-13 for Language
Running Time: 100 minutes
Distributor: Paramount
Website: http://swingvote.movies.go.com/

In certain situations, it can be difficult to determine tone. I’ve experimented with a pithy remark or two in an email, only to receive responses either devoid of humour or incensed. So, I’ve learned to be more direct with my missives. A bouquet of roses, I’ve found, or the occasional letter bomb, are much clearer.

Similarly, Swing Vote, a film about an alcoholic single father whose miscast vote holds up a decision in the US presidential election, has trouble finding its tone. Is it a kid’s movie? And adult-themed comedy? Tin Cup for people who drink as a sport? It starts out jovially enough, if somewhat foul-mouthed, by appearing to be a PG-13 film about an incorrigible rapscallion building a relationship with his precocious daughter. But within minutes, there’s a joke about elderly Jews fearing Young Republicans, which has overtones that not all might find family friendly.

The film stars Kevin Costner as Bud Johnson, a miserable excuse for a father who has somehow ended up taking care of his daughter despite seemingly being unable to make it halfway through a line of dialogue without an infusion of Miller Light. After passing out in his truck on Election Day, his politically-informed but under-age daughter (the adorable Madeline Carroll) votes for him, taking advantage of a sleeping ballot-box attendant, but a power failure renders the vote inadmissible. And when the election, pitting incumbent Republican President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer) against Democrat Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper), becomes a dead heat, Johnson is given the chance to recast “his” vote and decide the election.

Director/co-screenwriter Joshua Michael Stern tries to covers a lot of ground, from lampooning election-time political pandering to force-feeding messages about voting down the audience’s throat, the gavage leaving our collective livers fat and bloated with civic responsibility. Unfortunately, even veteran comedic performers like Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane, who play the Republican and Democratic campaign advisors respectively, can’t find a way to deliver the material consistently.

As for Costner, he’s a talented and supremely likeable actor. But the flippant way the film portrays his character is distressing light. There is, of course, much to be said for avoiding the cookie-cutter mould of wacky-but-lovable Disney fathers. However, the image of a grade-school driving her drunken father home after she finds him passed out behind the wheel seems incongruous in a film that seems to be striving for a fluffier tone.

Ultimately, despite its lofty ambitions as a piece of political commentary, the film relies too much on the conventions of a fluffy comedy, creating a mishmash of ideas that, like many politicians, tries to appeal to everyone and once but succeeds in convincing no one. They should have just sent some flowers, or an email.