Swing Vote
Okay, everyone. Let’s get something straight. Just in case nothing in the last eight years has tipped you off—you’ve been in a bomb shelter, or trapped under something heavy, or whatever—the 1990s are officially over. Gone. They took their cloud of Gap khakis and enormous cell phones and went home. How do we know we’re in a new decade? A new century? A new millennium? Here’s how: Kevin Costner has a movie coming out this weekend, and nobody even noticed.
The movie is Swing Vote, starring the Prince of Thieves himself, plus the little girl who played Ben’s childhood sweetheart that one time on Lost, as an apathetic Ohio resident whose vote will determine the Presidential election. It’s small. It’s domestic and political (which you know is a winning combination at the box office). It’s the kind of movie that’s going to be dated as soon as it hits theaters, or at the very latest, the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November. But it’s a bit of a milestone for Costner anyway, and we at CH applaud his efforts. Don’t give up, Kevin!
How did this happen? How is it that one of the most marketable film stars of the last decade doesn’t even register anymore? Was it…the string of bad movies connecting 1991 to 2007? I think we can all learn something here. Note to self: In the event of international fame for acting (which is totally going to happen aaaaaany day now), make at most one terrible, bloated “epic” per five-year period. Kapisce?
Ultimately, though, Costner’s sudden under-the-radar status may be the best thing that ever happens to him: a chance to build up some equity in smaller films, remember what it’s like to play a person in the current, living universe, and shift from A-List Adventure Guy to Person Who Isn’t Always On A Horse (as he ages, Orlando Bloom might consider the same transformation. Are you listening to me, O?). He generated some positive buzz in The Upside of Anger, and although Rumor Has It… was a travesty of filmmaking, it wasn’t his usual lead-balloon fare, and that’s something. He is bringing back his famed Midwest Guy persona, a la Field of Dreams, but that’s forgivable. Baby steps, after all. Maybe this is just the beginning of new Costner, someone who’s slightly less cringe-y, has a little more sense about the roles he accepts, someone who’s scaling it down a little. We can hope. Good luck, Kevin.
Swing Vote, Kevin Costner, Madeline Carroll, Orlando Bloom, upcoming movies, new releases
July 31st, 2008 at 1:53 am
Let’s not forget the really quite good Thirteen Days. Though to be fair against Kevin, it was good despite him, not because of him.