Game Change Movie Review

Game Change (2012)

Rent Game Change on Amazon Video // Buy the book
Written by: Danny Strong (written by),  Mark Halperin and John Heilemann (book)
Directed by: Jay Roach
Starring: Ed Harris, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Peter MacNicol, Sarah Paulson, Ron Livingston
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska becomes Senator John McCain's running mate in the 2008 Presidential election.

Verdict
The performances are great, Moore and Harris do a great job of really capturing the people they portray. Depicting the history and chaos behind McCain's presidential run, we see what happened with the added benefit of also seeing what happened off camera. This isn't a documentary, it feels like any good political satire, but in this case it actually happened. This is a character study of Sarah Palin, someone who was out of her depth, and lashed out at those around when off camera to regain that feeling of power.
Watch it.

Review
Moore and Harris do such a great job of mimicking even minor characteristics. They're great.

This movie is about Palin. She seems a bit naive, and at first you wonder if it's some kind of front. She's a Vice President pick that's unique, but it makes sense. McCain's campaign needs to gamble to gain ground against Barack Obama, and this is a worthwhile move. The campaign isn't quite sure about her, but the teleprompter breaks in her first speech and she nails it. That's a powerful moment that relieves everyone that doubted her.

Ed Harris plays SenatorJohn  McCain.

The campaign soon realizes she's a great actress. They can't teach her to understand politics, but they can teach her how to respond and in true political fashion not say a lot. Even more, teach her not to say anything that will hurt the campaign. This paints Palin a little rough. She doesn't know anything about politics and can't learn it. This isn't far from a comedy where someone out of their depth is put into politics and has to figure out how to compensate.

She's very worried about her numbers in Alaska, her home state, when she is tanking in the rest of the country. It's an odd worry, but it's a sign of he misplaced priorities.
It's amazing how ignorant she can be and then turn around and be demanding and demeaning. She fails to acknowledge her own mistakes, but wants anyone else punished for even minor mishaps. Everyone is trying to help her and she will turn mean on them in an instant. It may be a defense mechanism, a reaction to regain her feeling of strength to compensate for her weakness. Maybe it's how she got to be governor.

Julianne Moore plays Sarah Palin.

This becomes an intriguing character study about someone desperately trying to feel powerful. She flaunts her moral superiority, but then lies about her Troopergate involvement, her husband, everything. It's amazing how she can flip from nice to mean, blaming everyone and everything else but never her shortcomings. She has this back and forth where we think she's on the verge of a breakdown, but then she demands a concession speech when that's not her role. The movie presents these actions but doesn't extrapolate. I was fascinated as I tried to determine why she acted as she did.

Her vetting happened quickly, and if anyone had asked her political questions during the process she wouldn't have made the cut. This is a great movie. Vice, the movie about Dick Cheney got a lot of praise. Being comedic and stylish certainly helps, but Game Change is just as enlightening.