It all comes down to Costner, and he's great

Loosely speaking, there are two Kevin Costners. One is the self-effacing schlub of

Bull Durham

and

Tin Cup

, a winning loser who carries himself lightly. The other, the self-important somebody of

The Postman

and

Waterworld

, whose messianic heavyosity scuttles both films.

Swing Vote, a disarming political satire perfectly calibrated to the national mood and to its revitalized star (who also produced), boasts a scruffy Costner as Bud, self-effacing loser. Because of a voter-machine malfunction, Bud can pick the winner of a hung presidential race that all comes down to New Mexico's five electoral-college votes.

While this sounds like a plot hatched by Frank Capra, it is closer to that of the half-remembered 1939 Garson Kanin film The Great Man Votes, starring the sodden John Barrymore, and even closer to the hanging-chad suspense of the 2000 presidential election.

Both cynics' snarkfest and civics lesson, the ingratiating political satire from Joshua Michael Stern and Jason Richman isn't concerned merely with whether the blue-collar single dad will make the Land of Enchantment tip blue-state or red. It has more important things on its mind. Partisan politics is the satirical target, voter apathy the serious one.

Which makes Costner the ideal candidate to play the boozy bozo from Texico, N.M., who doesn't even know who's on the ballot. Using both his comic and dramatic chops, Costner guzzles the material with a looped sincerity. It's his best performance in years.

He is ably abetted by the unsmiling Madeline Carroll (no relation to the late British screen legend Madeleine Carroll), as Bud's 12-year-old Molly, as bright and worried as Bud is dim and oblivious. Molly extracts her father's promise to vote and when he fails to show up, sets in motion the film's Rube Goldberg plot.

As in many single parent/child films, Molly is the reliable one. Her undependable father is chronically late to his job in an egg factory where many are losing work to lower-wage workers from Mexico. If Bud loses his job, child services will take away Molly, whose estranged mother (Mare Winningham) is out of the picture. Who has time to listen to the candidates?

Bud's situation casts clouds over the film's sunny comedy, sharpening the proceedings and Costner's performance as the one voter who counts.

Both the incumbent Republican president (Kelsey Grammer) and his strategist (Stanley Tucci) and the Democratic challenger (Dennis Hopper) and his strategist (Nathan Lane) tell Bud what they think he wants to hear. (In a film that is sometimes flabby, the ads where the candidates reverse their positions are trim.)

At first Bud, the hungry nobody at an all-you-can-eat media buffet, devours the attention. But then comes the indigestion, the charges that America's destiny is in the hands of a doofus. (The put-down is a little stronger than that; too bad this PG-13 film is chock-full of profanity. But for the four-letter words, it's unusually family-friendly.)

As the candidates pander to Bud, I recalled a line from Bulworth, the one where the disillusioned white senator raps the truth to his black constituents: "One man, one vote, now, is that really real? The name of our game is let's make a deal." In many ways, Costner's Swing Vote is a companion piece and a rejoinder to Warren Beatty's satire.

Swing Vote is messy and its targets are relatively safe. But its aim is true. And Costner's performance hits the bull's-eye.

Directed by Joshua Michael Stern. With Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane, Kelsey Grammer, Stanley Tucci, George Lopez and Madeline Carroll. Distributed by Touchstone Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 59 mins.

Parent's guide: PG-13 (gratuitous profanity, otherwise family-friendly for viewers age 8 and older)

Playing at: area theatersEndText