Our Brand is Crisis fictionalizes the events depicted in the 2005 documentary of the same name. The source material covers the involvement of American consultants in the 2002 Bolivian election, with the likes of strategist James Carville buoying the chances of an unpopular candidate through sophisticated campaigning. The very serious ramifications of that involvement are barely touched on in this adaptation, which is mostly happy to focus on the comedic aspects of a long held grudge between two campaigners. That is, until it makes a sudden, unearned bid for redemption at the end, putting the movie in an awkward position between extremes of relevance and frivolity.
"Calamity" Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) has spent the last six years living a peaceful life in the wilderness, having gone into exile following a stint in a psychiatric hospital stemming from a scandalous exit from campaign work. But she's pulled back into the profession, hired as a consultant by the desperate staff of an unpopular Bolivian presidential candidate. Jane shows very little interest in the election at first, but a fire is lit under her when she encounters her old rival Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton). Jane takes charge of the campaign, using a variety of shady methods in order to reshape the narrative and get her candidate elected.
The opening credits declare the film as being "suggested" by the 2005 documentary. It's an interesting bit of semantics that ties the movie to real events but theoretically frees it from the burden of historical accuracy. But taken from another perspective, it frames the film as being fundamentally toothless. It tries to borrow the gravity of history, but has little interest in actually exploring the issues brought about in this particular milieu. The movie ends up reducing the story of an entire South American nation thrown into chaos into the story of one American woman and her awakening to issues larger than herself.
The movie is entertaining to a certain extent. There is something to the rivalry between Bodine and Candy, some genuine insight derived from how the two treat the election as a personal game. The combined frivolity and vulgarity of their interactions speaks volumes about the perils of American-style politics. But then the film tries to have its cake and eat it, too. The movie gets all Hollywood as it sketches out a path of redemption that leads to unearned social awareness. The film makes a late bid for gravity that feels completely contrived, the movie never really laying down the proper groundwork to justify such an awakening in the characters.
The film is never less than watchable, though. Director David Gordon Green applies a firm hand behind the camera, his scenes buzzing with energy if not quite visual inspiration. He picks up little details that help build up the characters. The acting is pretty good as well. Sandra Bullock shines when she really dives into the amorality of the character. She is less successful when she is made to convey some sort of transformation. There just isn't enough in the script to make it work. A rich supporting cast helps a lot as well, but there isn't really a whole lot to these side characters.
Our Brand is Crisis fails in the end because it tries to have it both ways. It is too rooted in real events to really be funny, the specter of what really happened in Bolivia looming over the comedy. And it is also too silly to justify its bid of seriousness, the film failing to give a real sense of the issues facing the country as it brings focus to the absurd rivalry between Bodine and Candy. This is a film that really needed to make a choice about what it wanted to be, the story losing its teeth as it waffles between two extremes. Strong, professional work keeps the film mostly tolerable, but not much else.
My Rating:
