Likely the most telling moment in HBO’s fast-paced, highly engrossing new TV-movie “Game Change” is a moment that’s not in the Halperin/Heilemann book on which it’s based.
On his own, screenwriter Danny Strong discovered (among other things) that senior McCain/Palin campaign advisor Nicolle Wallace could not bring herself to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket on Nov. 4, 2008.
“Game Change” shows us what frightened both Wallace (Sarah Paulson) and her fellow senior McCain/Palin advisor Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson) over the two months between Sarah Palin’s September nomination in St. Paul and the election that put Barack Obama in the White House.
John McCain’s running mate (portrayed masterfully by Julianne Moore) is depicted as a lying, unstable, petty, whiny, childish, egotistical, vindictive, delusional, power-abusing and duplicitous middle-aged mean girl. No surprise there.
What’s jaw-dropping is that “Game Change” demonstrates that Palin is likely much more weak-minded than even her TV interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric let on.
The world is full of people who are bad at their jobs, but those who are great at their jobs are often those who are engaged by those jobs. Good politicians, I think, tend to be those who are driven by an interest in identifying and solving problems.
The world is also full of 44-year-old adults who spent their lives without a lot of intellectual curiosity about history, geography, political doctrine or world affairs, and the movie demonstrates that Sarah Palin – the former Wasilla mayor only 19 months into her first term as Alaska governor – was one of these, a woman ridiculously ill-equipped to run for national office.
“Game Change” reunites screenwriter Strong (still known to “Buffy” fans as Jonathan Levinson, charter member of The Nerds of Doom) with director Jay Roach (the “Austin Powers” trilogy), who collaborated also on 2008’s Emmy-winning HBO movie “Recount,” which delved into hanging chads and the controversial Bush/Gore contest of the year 2000.
Another surprise is how well all the Republicans not named Sarah Palin come off in “Game Change.” Schmidt and Wallace are portrayed expending considerable talent and effort trying to make lemonade out of an overwhelmed, ungrateful lemon of a running mate. Harrelson, a million miles from Woody Boyd, contributes his best performance in years as the brainy Schmidt.
As portrayed by the Ed Harris, the foul-mouthed backstage HBO McCain comes off as smarter, sharper, menchier and more charismatic than the CNN McCain we saw in 2008. The HBO McCain, more avuncular than grandfatherly, seems in fact more electable than the tin-eared weirdoes currently vying for President Obama’s job.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I am a longtime registered Republican who has yet to vote for any Democrat. I love famed California Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood and was a big fan of Alan Alda’s Republican character on “The West Wing.”)
Best of all, “Game Change” helps us understand completely how McCain could choose a running-mate as dim and generally awful as Palin. Faced with an overwhelmingly popular Democratic opponent and plummeting poll numbers, McCain realized putting another old white guy on the ticket would have not reversed his fortunes. Tapping the telegenic but unseasoned Palin was a desperate move, and – all things considered – not an unreasonable one.
I like the casting of “Game Change” generally. The Palin daughters look so much like the real thing I wondered for a moment if the movie somehow tricked Bristol and Willow into playing themselves. Austin Pendleton turns up as former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman (George W. Bush’s crippling recession had made the GOP so toxic that year that McCain gave serious thought to organizing a party-bridging McCain/Leiberman ticket.) Other recognizable faces playing McCain/Palin staffers include Peter MacNichol (“Ally McBeal”), Ron Livingston (“Office Space”) and Jamey Sheridan (“The Stand”).
… We’re left with the conviction that Sarah Palin would have made a dangerously incompetent president of the United States, and that those closest to her in the campaign, including John McCain, came to realize that. …
... engaging ... As her image falters, and mockery mounts, Ms. Palin’s inflated ego takes a toll. She turns sullen and almost catatonic, refusing to prepare for her Katie Couric interview, and then blames staff members when that ends in disaster. … mostly it chronicles the advisers’ consternation over what they missed in the vetting process: As Nicolle Wallace (Sarah Paulson), a former Bush aide who was a senior Palin adviser, puts it, “She didn’t know why North and South Korea were different countries.” …
... Even when Palin turns petty or paranoid, the overarching image is of a sleek and shiny big fish from a very small pond suddenly transported to the wide and densely populated ocean, unable to reconcile her self-image with what the campaign, and eventually the nation, is seeing. ... either a very sad film, or a very, very scary one. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... jaw-dropping … a thoroughly engrossing film made all the more compelling by Ms. Moore's performance. … the movie depicts Sen. McCain quite sympathetically. And his advisers, although they make some huge mistakes -- most notably in failing to fully vet Palin before recommending her for the Veep slot -- also come across as devoted patriots who grow terrified of the Pandora's box they may have opened with Palin's nomination. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… Directed by Jay Roach ("Recount"), "Game Change" is graced by three extraordinary performances in the leading roles, beginning with Moore's portrayal of Palin, which is both complex and entirely credible. Yes, the hair, makeup and costumes contribute mightily to transforming Moore, but the nuance she brings to the performance is simply astounding. … Harrelson has rarely done work as good as his performance as Steve Schmidt, the smartest guy in the room, but one whose zealous determination and single-minded focus on gamesmanship blinds him to political reality until it's too late. …
... While Moore's performance is riveting, the most insightful aspects of the tale are the insider reactions. The mounting concerns about the veep choice are illustrated by Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt, McCain's senior campaign strategist, and Sarah Paulson as Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser for the campaign. After the initial burst of enthusiasm for this charismatic speechmaker and go-getter mom, these team members demonstrate the campaign's dawning awareness of the candidate's lack of substance. Not only are the speechwriters and campaign consultants shocked at Palin's lack of knowledge about international affairs, they are stunned by her declaration that her nomination is "God's plan."...
... There is nothing I can say about “Game Change” — good, bad or indifferent — that won’t be taken the wrong way by somebody. Nevertheless, it’s a good movie. (Wince, duck.) It’s a lot better than the network’s numbingly rote “Too Big to Fail” last year and almost as good as the memorably gripping “Recount,” the 2008 HBO movie about the forever-disputed outcome of the 2000 election. …
... Academy Award-nominee Moore looks smart in her wardrobe and makeup, but she nearly chokes on that Wasilla twang. Anyone who suffered through the BU grad’s attempts at playing a Boston native during her 2010 “30 Rock” run knows accents are not her strength. …
… a compelling, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant dramatization of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Republican side of the 2008 presidential campaign … Moore and Harris may have the higher profile roles, but it is Woody Harrelson who is the real star of the film as McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. In a strong, quiet performance, Harrelson portrays Schmidt as a smart, thoughtful, loyal man who is trying to do right by his boss and his country but becomes increasingly alarmed as Palin becomes more powerful and less of a team player. Sarah Paulson also impresses as Palin aide Nicolle Wallace, whose job to prepare Palin becomes combative.
... star-studded, fast-moving, generally entertaining...
... exactly what you would assume an HBO film about Sarah Palin to be, and possibly even a little bit less than that. Palin isn't quite as broadly-drawn as, say, many of the Republican bogeymen on "The West Wing," where even though I agreed with the writer's politics, I cringed at the one-sided portrait of the other side, but nor is it particularly insightful or three-dimensional in telling this very familiar, very divisive story. Even if you take the side of the authors and filmmakers over Palin and believe that the film is 100% accurate, it doesn't shed enough new light on things to be worth the trouble of making, or watching. …
… a searing, sizzlingly well acted docudrama … an electrifying and darkly entertaining parable of the perils of modern political celebrity. …
… Jay Roach, who directed the Austin Powers films and won an Emmy for the HBO political drama Recount, knows from parody and keeps his actors from slipping into it. …
... If you think America dodged a bullet when Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore) lost the vice presidency, this movie is happy to agree. If you love the former Alaska governor, you will hate the film with the fire of a midnight sun. But even to this non–Palin supporter, it all feels like piling on–the campaign movie as blooper reel. …
… isn't going to change minds among haters or admirers of the former Alaska governor. It may not be vicious enough to satisfy Ms. Palin's worst enemies, and it is unflattering enough to offend her supporters. When it's all over, both camps will retreat to their respective corners, some glad, some sad, and none much the wiser. ...
… a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at politics -- as long as you're a Democrat (or a Republican willing to admit that Palin was a blunder -- but even then, the other elements will likely put you off). And yet, credit Game Change for at least trying to dramatize that moment in time. It is, for the left especially, an indictment of anti-intellectualism and our inherently flawed system for choosing our leaders.
… a home run: a big, smart, entertaining and extremely promotable showcase for marquee stars, generating tons of attention (flattering and otherwise) from political and media strongholds in D.C. and New York, in addition to the usual suspects. …
9 p.m. Saturday. HBO.
