Game Change displays bravura
The decision to choose Sarah Palin as John Mccain’s running mate in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign was about winning elections, not about who would make the best vice-president, 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper tells Woody Harrelson, playing Mccain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, in the opening seconds of Game Change.
“My job is to give political advice,” Harrelson-as-schmidt replies in carefully measured tones. “We needed to do something bold, to try to win the race.”
If you had to do it over again, Cooper continues, “Would you have her on the ticket?”
That exchange actually happened, during a revealing 60
Minutes segment that aired in 2010, two years after Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s historic election as the 44th President of the United States, and the country’s first black president.
Mediocre made-for-tv biopics are a dime a dozen these days, but very few — and Game Change is one of the very few — reach for greatness.
Game Change is riveting, ferocious, fast-paced, smart, and as thrilling as any TV thriller. It is propelled by an almost inexorable energy. There are no gun battles or car chases, no terrorist bombings — just the to-and-fro of adults settling adult differences in what they believe is an adult way. This is bravura filmmaking, not just on the small screen, but any screen.
It isn’t just the acting, which is of an almost astonishing standard across the board, not just from Ed Harris as Mccain and Julianne Moore as Palin, who both give larger-than-life, showy, awardworthy performances. Every role, from the principals down to the undervalued, overlooked campaign functionaries, has been cast with an exquisite eye for detail.
Game Change’s real achievement, though, is the way it takes a media caricature — Sarah Palin as a backcountry nitwit — and portrays her as something more complicated and believable: a determined, defiant mother of five and canny state politician who was elevated by Washington insiders to an almost deity-like status, and then, when she failed to live up to their expectations, was thrown to the wolves by those very same backroom boys. (HBO — 9 p.m.)
◗◗ Set your phasers on stun. George Takei leads his indefatigable
Celebrity Apprentice team members into a window-dressing challenge, where they run into snags. (Global — 8 p.m.)
◗◗ From Superbad to Moneyball, recent best-supporting-oscar nominee Jonah Hill hosts Saturday Night
Live, a week after Lindsay Lohan set a near-ratings record. The Shins are the musical guest. (Global — 11:35 p.m.; NBC — 12:30 a.m.) ◗◗ If you missed the debut of Can
ada’s Got Talent — and that’s perfectly understandable; CGT bowed on the most crowded, competitive night of the TV week — here’s your chance to see it again. (Citytv — 9 p.m.)