Is it the times that are in it that a very poor comedy about politics and PR could be made in so toothless a fashion, and be so lacking in edge and intelligence? Moreover, that it could be dragged down by Peter Straughan’s limp screen-play and not enlivened by the ill-judged slapstick? Don't know the answer to the first question, but, boy, is this one a disappointment.
Film fans of a certain age, cast your minds back to Tim Robbins in the brilliant film Bob Roberts. Now allow yourself some smug feelings that you had the discernment to check it out back in the early 90s. Clap yourself on the back that you enjoyed what was an admirably sharp, realistic satire on American politics. Because you sure as hell ain’t going to check out Our Brand is Crisis if you've got any sense.
Bob Roberts was made by Robert Altman and he, to our great loss, is no longer with us. But Sandra Bullock is with us, a fine actress who deserves far better than this. Indeed she deserves much better than most of the films we see her in, but we all know that.
Jane Bodine and her candidate, Castillo, run the press gauntlet
In this tired effort, Billy Bob Thornton and herself play election strategists for hire. On the face of it, they are hardened, cynical campaigners out to score points off each other with their respective candidates in the 2002 Bolivian Presidential election. You are lulled into thinking it might be good because the idea for the film was 'suggested' by Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary, also entitled Our Brand Is Crisis.
Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) and Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton)
Seasoned campaigners they may be, but Bullock as Jane Bodine – nicknamed 'Calamity Jane' - is a figure of fun at first, although she is intended to gain some gravitas and some of our sympathy as the movie proceeds. An eccentric creature with strange habits, she falls down the airplane stairs on arrival at the airport in La Paz, Bolivia’s capital. Suffering from altitude sickness, she must travel around with an oxygen tank for her first few days in La Paz and at her first meeting with the candidate - the rather charisma-free Señor Castillo - she excuses herself to vomit. Classic Bullockisms abound, in other words, at high altitude in this instance.
Billy Bob plays the more heartless snake in the grass as Pat Candy, out to destroy Jane’s candidate - and by extension Jane - with his protégé, the super-confident Señor Rivera. Thus the movie ding-dongs, as Billy Bob scores, and Bullock tries to get him back, in tit-for-tat fashion.
The climax involves a ridiculous race between the respective campaign buses along a narrow mountainous path in the course of which Jane moons at the folks on the other bus. That enough? Because the screenplay is so weak, there is an attempt to leaven it with aphorisms and adages from wise chaps such as Machiavelli or Goethe (or was that Joseph Goebells?) That doesn't work either.
Meanwhile, there is a serious functional problem running throughout in that some of the dialogue is conducted in Spanish with English subtitles, and some is conducted in English, even when Bolivians are talking to each other. How weird is that? Don’t bother.
Paddy Kehoe
