After losing his job, a journalist reluctantly agrees to help his oddball friend with his bid to earn a seat on the Seattle City Council.
Chronically unappealing.
Stephen Gyllenhaal crafts a couple of rousing election-night sequences, but can't quite make the ending resonate – unless we see Cogswell's story as the first, faint stirrings of the Occupy movement.
Strange to think that Gyllenhaal's film is based on a true story because the idea of anyone voting for someone as unlikable as Grant seems a stretch.
Resembles the 1972 Robert Redford movie The Candidate had it been directed by Frank Capra. Their reaction mid-campaign to 9/11 is pure Capra.
Only Cedric the Entertainer’s McIver comes across as a likeable human being in the end, and as he’s the opponent of our heroes for much of the film, this only makes us dislike them more.
The film's Very Annoying Character looms large in the rear-view mirror.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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