I so wish it were 2008 again!

lee_eisenberg

Having gotten his start with the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents movies, Jay Roach turned to politically-themed movies. One example was 2012's "Game Change", about John McCain's hiring of Sarah Palin as his running mate, only to see the Alaska governor make a fool of herself and eventually sink his presidential campaign.

The star is Julianne Moore - who won a well deserved Emmy for the role - as Palin, perfectly impersonating the self-proclaimed mama grizzly in all her blithe ignorance and lack of preparation. At one point, she lashes out at the campaign for not letting her be herself; brainless though Palin may have been, she knew that the "real Americans" liked her. McCain (Ed Harris) takes more of a backseat to strategist Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson), who slowly but surely realizes that he made a mistake in hiring Palin and not sufficiently vetting her.

The movie certainly took me back to 2008. The long campaign, the Russia-Georgia War, Tina Fey's impersonation of Palin on SNL, and finally Barack Obama's victory. With that, millions thought that the US had finally moved beyond its racist past. We never guessed that eight years later we would see the ascension to power of an unhinged demagogue (never mind that Donald Trump didn't win the popular vote). Would that it were 2008 again.

Anyway, it's a fine movie. The rest of the cast includes Peter MacNicol (Sophie's Choice), Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story) and Ron Livingston (Office Space). As for Jay Roach, he also directed "Recount" (about the 2000 election), "The Campaign", "Trumbo" and "All the Way" (about Lyndon Johnson's first year in office).

score 10/10

lee_eisenberg 1 August 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3770100/