Sunday, March 11, 2012

Game Change



I am a political junkie. Ever since I was a kid I would sit and watch the Sunday morning political talk shows with fascination for the process that created the next President of the United States.

'Game Change' was a fantastically researched book about the historic 2008 election of Barack Obama. It meticulously follows the 60 days between the choice by Senator John McCain of Sarah Palin as vice-president and the landslide victory that ended (for now) her political dreams.


Julianne Moore - Emmy Bait - Her portrayal is not cartoonish or mocking. It's so hard to portray a living person who is only a few years removed from our memory. Everything Sarah Palin ever said is on You Tube. She is ubiquitous in our culture.

Julianne Moore found the fine line between caricature and the real human. Through her performance she actually had me fascinated with who this 'Sarah Palin' was.

Palin is definitely a self centered narcissist with delusions of grandeur and she earns every critique people have of her - but I felt sorry for her because she was so far out of her element when first thrust upon the National stage. You can see that in the way they campaign tries to educate her on basic facts of history, economics, or foreign policy. She doesn't have the capacity to learn.

She has no desire to know anything more than she needs to get her through the next day or accomplishment. She takes shortcuts. She is not intellectually curious. She acts on emotion and hold grudges. She is impatient. This leads to unbelievable bad decision making skills. She is not fit to be governor let alone President. However, she cannot be ignored. Her blinding popular appeal among conservatives is nearly Reganesque in its fervour.


Palin is better at flying by the seat of her pants than any politician in the last 20 years except for maybe Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. She has what one could call the 'common touch'. If she only had some balance between these two competing halves of her personality, the world may look very different today.

Julianne actually had me feeling sorry for Sarah and that is a feeling I thought I would never attach to her. This performance gave me some perspective and rounded out my personal evaluation of who this 'Sarah Palin' is.

"I am really glad you are asking me these types of questions." "Why is that?" "It's important that you know exactly what you're getting." - Sarah Palin during early vetting interviews.


Ed Harris - Emmy Bait "If he heals a sick baby we are really fucked" - Senator McCain while watching Obama's famous Berlin speech.

The construction of the movie is also interesting to watch as real video clips from the time are interspersed with dramatic segments. You see the dots connect themselves. For a serious political wonk like myself this was exciting entertainment. I knew the ending of the story but I was still thrilled to watch every familiar moment unfold.

It's would be so easy to do a hatchet job but this movie realizes that the human interest story they are telling is compelling enough without having to invent or focus on only the negative.

This is balanced and fair and for that reason Palin should be horrified. It's her worst nightmare come true - it's the truth. She's insane.


I saved the best for last. As great as Julianne is, Woody Harrelson is BETTER. He plays the mastermind behind choosing Palin in the first place. He had a front row seat as his Alaskan Frankenstein stumbled through the political landscape that he loved and revered. His final speech to her was exactly what we all wanted to tell her if we ever got the chance. His restraint is what made the acting so great.



10/10

3 comments:

Daisy said...

We recorded it to watch tonight... can't wait!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I don't have HBO so will have to wait to see it elsewhere -- probably in a year or so. But it sure looks good!

Sam G said...

Written by Danny Strong AKA Jonathan from Buffy