Change You Can Believe In?

HBO has just begun airing a new original movie, Game Change. It's based on portions of the best-selling book of the same name, and surrounds John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.

Politics being such a polarizing subject, and Sarah Palin being an especially polarizing figure, it's of course impossible to come to the film able to enjoy it fully on its own merits. But I myself wasn't really watching to see Palin eviscerated in a two-hour made-for-TV movie. (Though I certainly wasn't looking for her to be humanized, either.) Mainly, I was tuning in to see the performances of two actors I particularly enjoy.

Julianne Moore takes on the role of Palin, while Ed Harris portrays John McCain. Both have an unenviable and near impossible job of playing real world figures, still alive and well, and doing it without crossing the fine line into caricature. They have to present real people the audience will respond to appropriately within the context of the narrative. Very few actors could ever pull off such a tightrope act, but I was eager to see these two try.

Of the two, it's much harder to fairly judge Julianne Moore's performance. I can say that she certainly doesn't play Palin broadly, or for comedy. Several scenes in the film have her Palin watching Saturday Night Live footage of Tina Fey's Palin impersonation, and this side by side comparison serves to show just how carefully crafted and realistic Moore's performance is. But... this is still Sarah Palin we're talking about here. Some will say the script of this film is a hatchet job to her. Personally, I'll simply say that I think the movie portrayed her exactly as she was (and is). If you disagree, then you can blame the script; Moore's performance is above reproach.

But I found Ed Harris to be particularly impressive in the film. He neither looks nor sounds as much like John McCain as Moore does Palin, but Harris manages to infuse his performance with a surprising humanity. McCain (the character) comes off as a largely admirable and thoroughly principled man who learns the consequences of compromising those principles -- and accepts them.

There is a larger message at play in Game Change, however, than putting these two figures under yet another microscope. The film's undercurrent is more about the devolution of news into a circus of entertainment. It's also a fine example of "group think" in politics, a lesson that translates to groups of many sizes and many beliefs and affiliations. The film presents exactly the sort of echo chamber inside the McCain campaign that led to Palin's selection, and how it persisted against reason all the way through the campaign. And I think whether you accept this as unvarnished truth, or find it shaded (to any degree) with fiction, you'll still recognize it as something that does happen.

That said, while the message is there, and the acting is fine (not only from Moore and Harris, but from an ensemble cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Peter MacNicol, and Sarah Paulson)... well, like I said at the beginning of this, it's impossible to come to this film and watch it on its own merits. The film can't really change minds (if it even would intend to), nor can it provide any sort of emotional catharsis (when the audience's emotions about it are predetermined before the first frame appears). In short... it can only be so good.

Trying to wrap that all up to put a mark on it, I think I'd call Game Change a B-. I think I'd recommend it to anyone who, like me, is keenly interested in the actors involved. Otherwise, you might well choose to avoid it.