Swing Vote (2008)

It's a great movie premise: What if the outcome of the entire presidential election hinged on one citizen's vote? (Actual state and local contests have run as close as one vote.) Furthermore, what if that person was a clueless Joe Six-Pack who couldn't give a fig? (During the 2008 election, John McCain's oft-vaunted "Joe the Plumber" gave a whit but proved to lack a clue as well as a plumbing license.) Swing Vote gives us Kevin Costner as the beer-loving lout of a single dad whose grade-school daughter (Madeline Carroll) has had to grow up fast if Bud (that's his name) is to get out of bed, provide something edible, drive her to school, and show up at his job. As a bright, motivated, and conscientious student, she intends to write her school report about the election but Joe flubs up. Meanwhile, one vote is accidentally invalidated -- Joe's, it turns out -- so the entire national election hangs in the balance until he can cast his vote. I love how the vote becomes miscast then discovered -- and how both presidential candidates lampoonishly court Joe as if he were a one-stop electoral college. (Kelsey Grammer makes a perfectly stuffy Republican buffoon while Dennis Hopper is the Democratic mannekin. Their advisors, esp. Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci, are suitably satirical too.) The standout performance here though is Madeline Carroll -- she weighs in with the best of the adults. Watch for her in future roles and see Swing Vote if you appreciate how democracy works (or would enjoy satire about how it shouldn't work). I saw it in the theater but it's a fun one-time view for anyone who likes to root for the redemption of Joe Six-Pack and his devoted daughter. 4 stars.