The headline pretty much sums it up. If you were seeking political entertainment, then you could spend two hours of your life in worse ways—there are always Republican Primary debates—but the documentary this film is based on (which I saw nearly a decade ago and never once thought “boy, I hope they remake this with Sandra Bullock in the James Carville role”) is sharper, more insightful, more audacious, and even more entertaining.
What Works: Billy Bob Thornton does what he can in an underwritten part that might as well be called “Devil Incarnate” even though his oily political operative is actually on the right side of this election—something the film never draws attention to—and you keep wanting to ditch the main characters to see what his modern-day Machiavelli is cooking up. A sharp but under-utilized supporting cast includes Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, Zoe Kazan, and an especially effective Joaquim De Almeida who actually does look and act like a disconnected, uncaring part of the Latin elite. You really could see this guy as a corporate-backed president of a third world country.
What Doesn’t: Bullock is painfully miscast. I know her character is supposed to be a mess, but Bullock seems almost too-frail here, and more than a little out of her element. [A fact seemingly emphasized in the movie’s poster, which has her putting her hands up with a pained expression.] Just like in the overrated hit “The Heat” Bullock doesn’t truly seem like she wants to be here, and there are subtle shades of exhaustion to her performance that go beyond what the character is supposed to be going through. Her scenes with Thornton are supposed to be duels between old pros, but it seems more than a little lop-sided.
The movie also ends with a cop-out sympathetic portrayal of her that feels like a desperate attempt by studio brass to make sure her character is likable. And the movie ends at the point that the documentary really got going, not explicity going into what a mess the central candidate’s presidency really was.
What I Would Have Done Differently: There are sharp ideas about first-world influence in third-world elections, but most of that gets buried under a too-light narrative, inconsistent tone, listless direction, and an uninspired lead performance. If the director were Steven Soderbergh instead of David Gordon Green, and the movie starred Charlize Theron instead of Bullock, you might really have something.