Our Brand is Crisis

This political version of a Monroe Doctrine didn't work for me. I find preposterous the idea that while the American Dream is actually falling apart at the seams, foreign countries would be in dire need of American political strategists to win national elections, in this case in... Bolivia. The second reason is rather trivial, I'll admit, but I was bothered by having to constantly lower the head to hear the political whisperings between actors, while making sure I was not missing the English translations running at the bottom of the screen. And one has to wonder why it was so necessary to situate the action in what is called in the film a "godforsaken town", to recount the story of an American political strategist who wakes up to the troubles she's been causing ordinary voters "by persuading them of something they don't need". The same message, filmed in Wisconsin, would have been as pertinent, if not more, considering the present atmosphere of carnival Republican politics and deteriorating US democracy, as it is being bought by banks and corporations. No need to go to Bolivia if you want to show that voters are getting screwed by political strategists.

I love this movie. I usually avoid movies with low Rotten Tomatoes scores, but I took a risk and saw this in a theater when it was first released. It's more serious and cerebral than Sandra Bullock's other movies, but as a political drama it's quite well done.

I teach marketing and sales and recommended it as extra credit to my students. The principle of this movie is the principle of all marketing campaigns; branding a product/service to meet the psychographic needs of consumers. In this case it's branding a candidate to meet the needs of his constituents. I thought it had good entertainment value as well.