Sandra Bullock Billy Bob
Thornton Anthony
Mackie Ann
Dowd
Scoot
McNairy Zoe
Kazan Joaquim de
Almeida
Crisis is the key word here in this picture
showing the seamier (realistic?) side of politics. The setting is Bolivia where a race for president is going
on, the screenplay (Peter Straughan) of which is inspired by a documentary
(same title) directed by the talented Rachel Boynton (Big Men http://texasartfilm.com/bigmen.html) about a political race for president of Bolivia in
2002. Candidate Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozado hired an American political firm that consulted all over the world to
run his campaign: Greenberg
Carville Shrum. (That’s Carville,
as in James Carville.) Since I
haven’t seen the documentary, I don’t know how much the movie reflects events
in that work.
Our Brand
is Crisis the movie begins with two political strategists, Nell (Dowd) and
Ben (Mackie) driving through the snow to Jane Bodine’s (Bullock) isolated cabin
to talk her into joining their team in Bolivia. Hurt by political machinations in her work as a crack
strategist in the past, she has developed new interests and a new life. Somehow, though, the thrill of a campaign
is seductive, and she decides to join them.
Unfortunately, after arriving in Bolivia with
altitude sickness and feeling rotten in general, she realizes that her prior
nemesis Pat Candy (Thornton) is on the scene. Bad news. The
movie takes a neutral stance about their past, so it is unclear who actually
was responsible for the most heinous dirty tricks in previous campaigns,
although, I think they want us to believe that it was Candy, who comes across
as slimy as the snake in the Garden of Eden.
The campaign proceeds and the two teams end up
going for the jugular. It is a
fascinating (at least to me) look at how political campaign strategists think
and reason. In Jane’s case, she
deftly sizes up the psychology of her candidate Castillo (de Almeida) and
figures out how to turn his weaknesses into strengths—clearly going against the
advice he is currently receiving from his own consultant and the American
team. In view of this perceptive
cogency, the filmmakers’ showing her clumsy and neurotic for comic effect was
silly and an unnecessary distraction.
They should have dispensed with the “comedy” altogether and gone for
dramatic effect and political illumination.
Although we learn how the election turns out,
the film ends with an ambiguity that I see as a strength. Beneath Jane’s many “masks”
(alternately crazy, tender, calculating, insightful, and—above all—perceptive),
she is a thoughtful and sincere woman with convictions who will continually
surprise.
We know Sandra Bullock is a phenomenal actor,
and I think she portrayed this character to a T. Such a talent actor can make the character come alive so
forcefully you forget the actor.
She was strongest in this film when Candy is speaking to her in a
taunting, seductive, goading manner and she simply stares into space (and you
know exactly what she is thinking) or—in contrast—when she forcefully confronts
her team or the candidate with hard truths; or at the end when she is mulling
over in her mind the comments of the young campaign worker and all that has
just transpired. Billy Bob
Thornton is masterful in portraying a truly evil person, all while talking in
the most civil and seductive manner.
His idea of coming into the filming looking exactly like James Carville
was a brilliant move.
David Gordon Green does the quiet, personally
revolutionary films that I am inevitably drawn to (e.g., Prince Avalanche, George Washington). I imagine he smiles as he thinks about the issues he has
brought up in Our Brand is Crisis
that will spark controversy and differences of opinion. In discussions about this film, I
expect many will have strong opinions about political consultants, political
processes (particularly elections), and the marketing of candidates.
An insightful look at the underside of
political campaigns.
Grade: B By
Donna R. Copeland
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