Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Should you watch this for free? If you’re a Sandra Bullock fan.
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 108 minutes (~2 hours)
“Our Brand is Crisis” is a political drama inspired by the 2002 Bolivian presidential election. It centres around a political strategist’s attempt to lead an unpopular presidential candidate to victory in Bolivia. It stars Sandra Bullock (Jane Bodine), Scoot McNairy (Rich), Billy Bob Thornton (Pat Candy), Anthony Mackie (Ben), Ann Dowd (Nell), Joaquim de Almeida (Pedro Castillo), Zoe Kazan (LeBlanc), Reynaldo Pacheco (Eduardo), Dominic Flores (Hugo), and Louis Arcella (Rivera). It is rated NC-16.
“Our Brand is Crisis” had so much story potential, so much political material to draw from and so much acting talent in it… and it all got squandered in a boring mess of a film. It doesn’t even make the effort to have one scene lead to another, let alone creating a narrative flow. If it were spectacularly awful, it might still have been memorable. But “Our Brand is Crisis” is just a forgettable blip that adds nothing to the world of cinema (except, perhaps, as a negative example).
Highlights
Sandra Bullock is as lovable as ever
Sandra Bullock delivers, despite the uninteresting story, slowly winning us over with her enthusiasm and drive. For her, this political battle is personal, and so the conflict occurs on multiple levels for her. But she never forgets to be human, giving us a character that we can relate to even if we don’t quite get the political world she lives in. Jane Bodine might not be a very engaging character as written, but Sandra Bullock’s portrayal is what makes this clod of a film watchable.
Letdowns
Flat narration of events
The story plays out like a chronological sequence of events. There’s no attempt to tell a story, no sense of rising action and no satisfaction in seeing any of the characters achieve anything. It tries to be funny, but that humour comes from ridiculous situations rather than the characters themselves. It tries to be hard hitting, but it doesn’t go far enough in driving home its point about the ludicrous political world. What you have is just some scenes stitched together so badly that you can’t even see how they’re connected.
Too much subtitling
Half of the dialogue needs to be subtitled. What is the point of subtitling, then? If it’s fiction, then have it all be in the same language and change the background to fit the story. The use of Spanish doesn’t add anything to the film, apart from repeatedly bludgeoning us with the fact that it’s taking place in a non-American country. The subtitling takes you away from immersion into the film because it’s so obtrusive, which is a problem when the film already has so many other issues.
Dull supporting cast
Besides Jane Bodine, the other supporting characters are just there to be warm bodies. They don’t have any real personalities, and are effectively props for Jane to interact with and to make up numbers in the political campaign office. Your mind wanders when anyone else but Jane starts to speak, because their dialogue is purely functional, with no hint of personalisation.
Pat just delivers exposition
The antagonist of the film has only one purpose, which is to provide information to Jane whenever the plot calls for it. Otherwise there’s no sense of rivalry between them (apart from the fact that they literally state that they’re enemies), and there’s no urge for you to see Pat get his just desserts. Text on the screen would have been a faster and cheaper way of fulfilling the antagonist’s role.
Climax is artificial and manufactured
The story is slowly crawling along when suddenly, everyone gets angry at random things and a quarrel ensues. The conflict comes out of nowhere, and it appears solely because it’s time for the film to end. You’re befuddled as previously accepted agreements explode into issues of huge import, and motivations and morals lurch into the foreground so that there’s some sort of battle lines drawn.
Look up any synonym for “boring” and it’ll describe “Our Brand is Crisis” perfectly. Sandra Bullock is the only bright spot in this tedious moving picture, but even her performance can’t save this unimaginative production.
“Our Brand is Crisis” opens in cinemas 14 January, 2016 (Thursday).
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