Difficult to watch, occasionally stomach hurting hilarious, this is a flawed film
There is a reason why sometimes even predictable films about dislikeable, deeply flawed people can occasionally be extremely engaging. That reason is usually Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, or Melissa McCarthy — star power like theirs is hard to ignore. They are the superstars who often play the everyman and make them extraordinary.
Sandra Bullock, always a luminous presence, proves yet again in Our Brand is Crisis that she can almost singlehandedly rescue a messy Hollywood product that takes a deeply complex subject, slaps a formula on it, and hopes for the best.
Based on a documentary of the same name by Rachel Boynton, the film is about an election in Bolivia, where one of the presidential candidates, Pedro Castillo (played exceedingly well by Joaquim de Almeida), hires an American team of political consultants — based on the real life firm Greenberg, Carville, Shrum — to try and help his floundering campaign.
Castillo is a billionaire, and he is perceived by the Bolivian people as elitist, unfriendly, and clearly the opposite of being ‘a man of the people’. The team of imported political spin doctors that try to help save his run consists of a group of relatively clueless North Americans. But redeeming the team is Jane Bodine, Sandra Bullock’s hard as nails, Sun Tzu and Goethe quoting, cigarette smoking, raw as heck but brilliant character who has a particularly ugly rivalry with Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton) — the other American advisor to Castillo’s rival and front runner Rivera (Louis Arcella).
As a hilariously absurd game of undercutting and smear campaigns ensue, Bodine, or “Calamity Jane” as she has come to be known for her most recent crash and burn (against Candy), finally begins to hit her stride. After absorbing the politics relevant to help her candidate win, namely figuring out that selling “crisis” with Castillo as the only person who can helm a country in dire straits, is the best way to get people to vote for her man, out of fear.
Our Brand is Crisis glosses over the real issues in Bolivia in 2002, such as the fight for proper representation by indigenous people. The focus of this film, which cares nothing for the woes of real people, is on satirising the very real tragicomedy that is political campaigning – North American style.
The film is patchy because it has no real feeling for the setting or other important political issues that could have been given more attention, losing its place to the drama surrounding Bodine’s moral dilemmas. Difficult to watch, occasionally stomach hurting hilarious, this is a flawed film made compelling by Bullock’s charm as an actor and innate comedienne.
Official trailer