Swing Vote is a very timely, charming, and heartfelt comedy about a political anomaly that is unlikely but possible. It stars Kevin Costner who plays a beer swigging, underachieving lovable loser, who is bringing up his super smart, precocious, and overachieving daughter in a trailer park located in a town in New Mexico that hardly registers on the map. His daughter is played by Madeline Carroll (a superstar of the future).

Frustrated that her father didn’t bother to vote, she sneaks into the polling booth and forges his vote but it doesn’t electronically register and results into a 50/50 vote split between the two presidential candidates. Then this sad sack of a man will have to decide who will be the next president of this here United States of America.

I didn’t think I was going to like this film, but I really enjoyed it especially with the two candidates Kelsey Grammar and Dennis Hopper. Plus their two slick campaign managers, Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane, go out of there way to woo our hero to vote for there guy. There are some very funny moments especially the TV ads which get very bizarre as desperation sets in. The banter between the father and the daughter is terrific. The writing is sharp and the acting and direction is first class. It’s definitely a cut above what you would normally expect in this type of film.

By Stanley Selwyn