After her Oscar winning turn in The Blind Side and blockbuster role flexing her comedic muscles in The Heat, Sandra Bullock is on sort of a roll. The actress has returned to theaters in the political drama Our Brand Is Crisis and she sure sells it in many, many ways.
The story follows Bullock’s political advisor, Jane, as she is recruited to help a Bolivian presidential candidate right his ship and give himself a chance at winning the general election. It’s an important election. The country has fallen into a downward spiral of economic doldrums and Joaquin de Almeida’s Castillo appears to be the man with a plan to fix it. But, he’s not connecting with the public. He’s seen as an elitist, American educated outsider who had his shot at running the country over a decade ago… and it did not work out so well.
Jane is known as someone who has a knack of getting the most out of her candidates and spearheading them to victory. That is, except for contests that pit her against Billy Bob Thornton’s James Carville-like Pat Candy. Against Candy, Jane is zero for four. This race, for her, is personal… and that is what makes Our Brand Is Crisis quite interesting and surprisingly compelling.
This political junkie adores films like this and the big takeaway here is that elections are elections, no matter of the geography. Whether the United States or Bolivia, the methods to the madness appear to be the same. The messages that candidates spew to the voting public to get votes may be tailored to fit each community, yet the means with which messages are conveyed and channeled are exactly the same.
Director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) could have gone the political satire route, given his helming history, but instead choses a straight forward approach with Our Brand Is Crisis that works for this material. The film is based on a documentary by Rachel Boyton of a real life election in Bolivia and that could also be why this flick feels so grounded.
Another reason it works is it is produced by the same people who gave us Argo and many other political films (such as Good Night and Good Luck), George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The duo, and their Smokehouse banner, have delivered another film that makes you enlightened while you’re simultaneously entertained. There are not a lot of filmmaking teams doing that of late, and Our Brand Is Crisis certainly delivers on all those fronts.
Bullock is in fine form and gets electric when she needs to be and channels subtlety when that is required as well. Thornton is a bit too snake oil salesman for our taste, but still makes his Candy character a solid foil for Bullock’s Jane. A pair of supporting players, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan deliver full force performances that almost steal the movie as members of Jane’s political team.
Our Brand Is Crisis won’t simply work for political movie fans, it is a film that grounds its story in the human condition.
Grade: B