User reviews

Without a doubt, Moore will get an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Sarah Palin.......a portrayal that, for the first time, gave me an understanding of Palin and a real sympathy for her. It showed a confident, charismatic, but essentially superficial person used to swimming in the shallows. It was also a Sarah Palin who was a mother with a new baby, a son going off to Iraq, and a close-knit, loving family who was suddenly taken away from that family and was thrust into the meat-grinder of national politics. Instead of being able to transcend herself and grow from the experience, we see a Palin who instead wraps herself up even more into being just who she is and finds a demographic of fellow shallows swimmers who love her just the way she is. Unfortunate, but after seeing this movie you could understand how it happened.

Harris as McCain portrays a rather idealized statesman, one trying to take the high road. There's no mention of McCain's volatile and explosive temper. Instead we're presented with an understanding, but aloof man at odds with the direction his party is going in. Again a sympathetic portrayal.

The final portrayals are of the political operatives in the McCain campaign. As you can understand the way Palin's personality begins to fracture under the pressure, you can also understand the operatives incredible frustration in trying to deal with it. You can understand when one operative, Wallace, finally just refuses to work with Palin anymore. You can understand the frustration of people who have spent their lives being informed try to deal with a Palin who lacks the most basic knowledge of history, world affairs or even how the federal government works. The tutoring sessions remind you of high school brains who've been pressured by the principal into tutoring the well-meaning, but thick-as-a-plank star quarterback so he can play in the finals. The room is thick with frustration on both sides.

This is a movie with no villains in the cast. If there is a villain here, it's a condemnation of the political process whereby a running mate is chosen solely for the electoral votes that person can bring with no consideration if the running mate is actually capable of running the country.

EDIT on 18 July 2012:

I finally read the book "Game Change" over the weekend. This movie actually is based on a very, very small amount of the book; it's not even the whole of "Part 3" as stated/implied in several reviews. The book is 23 chapters long (Part 1 - 14 chapters, Part 2 - 3 chapters, Part 3 - 6 chapters). The McCain campaign starts being covered at the beginning of Part 2 and is covered for the rest of the book. This movie is taken from less than two chapters (out of six chapters) in Part 3: Chapter 20 "Sarahcuda" which is all about Palin and how she got selected and Chapter 22 "Seconds in Command" which as the title implies covers both VP nominees (Biden as well as Palin). Plus the movie uses four and a half paragraphs from Chapter 23 "The Finish Line": two paragraphs describing McCain's relationship with Palin and 2.5 paragraphs about McCain and the "crazies" (that's what the book calls them) who started showing up at his rallies. The book does not cover the actual day of the election, so none of the scenes from election day are from the book, neither are any of the private scenes between Palin and her family. It was surprising to me to see how little of the book that this movie was based on. But many of the Palin incidents in the book are depicted reasonably to very faithfully in this movie. Now having read the book, I feel that the movie brought a greater depth of sympathy and understanding to Palin than the book did. And John McCain definitely comes off a lot better and more sympathetic in the movie than the book as the book does not minimize his foul mouth, his temper, his obstinacy and the dysfunctional relationship with his wife. If you're thinking about reading the book believing you'll find out more about Palin than what's presented in the movie, you won't. But you will find out a lot more about the election. (FYI: The rating for this review was 26 out 30 prior to this edit. Can't say if those people would have kept the same opinion of the review with this addition.)

Woody Harrelson is a lock for an Emmy nom, and more than likely Julianne Moore and Ed Harris get one as well. Palin may take issue with the moments in the movie that show her getting her diva on, but it's generally a very humanizing portrayal of her as a mom and wife who may have been in over her head but did her level best to soldier on. It's certainly not a caricature of her or a hatchet job. Moore, to her credit. seems to have gone out of her way to construct a reasonably balanced view of an extremely polarizing figure.

Had to love that line that Ed Harris delivers late in the movie where he tells Palin not to allow herself to be coopted by the Rush Limbaughs who will destroy the party. HBO couldn't have timed the TV premiere any better. Just lucky or prescient?

It's 2008; near the end of the Presidential Campaign between John McCain and then candidate Barack Obama. McCain is trailing in the polls and his campaign realizes he has to do something to energize his base and turn the election in his favour. He makes a decision that would not only have significant impact on the race, but the entire Republican party and ultimately define his political career.

First off the casting is excellent; both Julianne Moore and Ed Harris are perfectly cast and they deliver uncanny performances of Sarah Palin and John McCain. I found at times I got lost in the characters and forgot I was watching actors act; they were THAT good (this is really rare for me). Julianne Moore is very deserving of all the buzz she's been getting and I'm disappointed Ed Harris hasn't quite got as much publicity; his John McCain was not that far behind Moore's Palin (but make no mistake, Moore is the star here).

I loved the editing of the film as they fused together actual footage from the campaign trail and with scenes recreated in the film to great effect. I also found that the film shed some light on aspects of the campaign I didn't really think about; i.e. the other side of Sarah Palin. She was clearly someone who was just thrust into spotlight and was clearly not ready for the big stage. Moore really humanized her and did something that nothing else did that entire election cycle; not the media nor the politicos: it made me feel sorry for Sarah Palin (I have to say, I wasn't expecting that, not at all). There's quite a few laughs as well in the movie; including moments from hilarious foreign policy coaching sessions to the now infamous interview with Katie Couric when she essentially says "I can see Russia from my house" and couldn't name news papers she reads.

Now the movie isn't perfect. The film is a bit late in terms of release and I can't help but think that had a bit to do with some the negative reviews; for those outside the political bubble, the film may have lost a bit of it's punch almost 4 years after the fact. For me however, a political junkie, the film was still quite poignant. You could also argue the film has an agenda; i.e. to paint Palin as someone who cared more about how she looked and her own career more than John McCain's campaign, not very intelligent and reckless as she was derailing his campaign by "going rogue" (going off message) near the end. Although I personally believe all these to be true, the film does try to lead the viewer at times to that conclusion and I would've preferred if it was a bit more unbiased and allowed the viewer to form their own opinion.

At the end of the day I think the film successfully presented the theme of being honest with one's self; that when it comes to getting ahead in life, you need to be true to yourself and your values. The movie conveyed this through the characters around Palin in moments of reflection. In the film (and in real life) John McCain wasn't true to himself and it cost him the election (and maybe a bit of his soul too). At the end you could see he had begun to realize that; there's a great scene where John is at a town hall and an audience member says that "Obama is a Muslim" and he quickly stopped the audience member, corrected her and stated that it was not true and he didn't believe that. In that moment it was clear he realized he had gone astray as his campaign was now solely relying on really low brow tactics to try to save the election. It was as significant a moment in the film as it was in the real campaign.

I'm left with a really interesting moment from the film, where one of McCain's Republican advisers confesses that she didn't vote (which has to be nothing short of treason when you work for a campaign):

"I didn't vote... I couldn't do it... I didn't vote." (She starts to cry and moves to be hugged by Woody Harrelson's character (Steve)... "I couldn't do it.".

I can't help but think a lot of Americans had to feel exactly the same way in 2008. That single moment says everything you need to know about Sarah Palin and the 2008 Presidential Election. Kudos to a well made film.

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I have a mind of my own, at least I want to think so, but, I was influenced enough to give Game Change a miss. I was told this was a hatchet job - I must admit that the comments came from Republicans mostly - I finally saw Game Change last night, It literally blew my mind. Hatchet job? What are you talking about? I felt for her, the film humanizes her and somehow explains without partisan hysteria, how we got there, that in a way is to explain how we got here in 2017. Julianne Moore is superb, superb! Not a single false note or cheap shot. I also felt for John McCain, the American hero who told us that Sarah Palin was ready to to be President. The torment in John McCain through Ed Harris's eyes is more eloquent that any line of dialogue. As is Nicolle Wallace, played brilliantly by Sarah Paulson. Her torment is also so real you can touch it. A special mention should go to Woody Harrelson, es Steve Schmidt, extraordinary. Writers, directors and everybody involved deserve oodles of praise. They told us a piece of recent American history about a woman who thought her Vice Presidency was "God's plan"

There will be a lot of people who see "Game Change" and will absolutely hate it. No doubt, Sarah Palin, if she chooses to watch it, will probably be one of those people. I can't imagine a Democrat hating the movie. Either way, you can't talk about "Game Change" without feeling the bottoms of your shoes slightly thump against a soap box.

I personally don't know how accurate "Game Change" is. The film is based upon one-third of the 2010 bestseller of the same name by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Their book, detailing the entire 2008 Presidential election and allegations thereof in both parties, had been criticized for relying on too many anonymous sources and lacking explicit sourcing.

This movie, written by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach, takes the most intriguing segment of the 2008 election, namely the nomination and introduction of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and lets the ridiculousness of the events surrounding her expose itself.

Like "Recount" (2008), the previous collaboration between Roach and Strong, what is most astounding about this movie is not the events in it, but that we actually lived through them not too long ago. To paraphrase Hannibal Lector, anyone labeling this movie as exploitation only needs to see the barrage of CNN and Fox News footage in this film to remind themselves that the past is real.

"Recount" told the story of the chaotic 2000 election returns, and how little Al Gore and George W. Bush actually had to do with the transpired events, contrary to popular opinion. "Game Change" shows the interactions between those in and out of the spotlight, and how candidates in an election can be the cause of their own undoing.

The film centers around Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson), Senator John McCain's chief political adviser during his 2008 campaign for President. After winning the Republican nomination despite being last in the polls in 2007, McCain (Ed Harris) finds himself relying on Schmidt and other political advisers to find a V.P. candidate. Behind in the polls against Senator Barack Obama, he agrees to choose a female running mate to put him at an advantage against the first African-American nominee for President.

National Campaign Manager Rick Davis (Peter MacNicol) does his homework on a viable female candidate via a YouTube search in the only really inconsistent part of the film. You see him watch videos of female Republican politicians ranging from then-Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle to Maine Senator Susan Collins. What you don't see clearly is Davis' rationale behind not choosing one of these women. Why would Senator Collins not be a better choice than Sarah Palin? Of course, being originally from Maine, I am biased.

What you learn from this movie is that while the Republican strategists did some homework on the then-Alaska Governor, they should have done more. This fact becomes apparent when Governor Palin (Julianne Moore) does not know, among other things, that the British Prime Minister is the head of government in Great Britain, not the Queen of England.

In what could have been a farcical portrayal of a politician of whom it's easy to make fun, Julianne Moore is astonishingly great as Sarah Palin. Like Al Pacino as Dr. Jack Kevorkian in "You Don't Know Jack" (2010), Moore is so believable as Palin that you would swear Palin was playing herself.

More than having the "You betcha!" accent down pat, Moore never has one wavering moment where you think you're watching the same actress from "Boogie Nights" (1997) or "The Kids Are All Right" (2010). She nails every aspect about Palin from her firm belief in her politics, her reactions to the press, her ill preparation for the notorious Katie Couric interview, and her butting heads with political advisers. It's all completely believable.

While there was less pressure on Harrelson to play a public figure, he also did a great job as an adviser whose recommendation to nominate Palin truly seemed like a good idea at the time. Harrelson's Schmidt more or less regrets his decision to convince McCain, only to try to make the best of it later on.

Also equally effective is Sarah Paulson, who plays senior adviser Nicholle Wallace. In the scenes where she tries in vain to help Palin properly prepare for the Katie Couric interview, it's like watching an A-student try to get a D-student to study for a final exam. Considering how the real Palin bombed that interview, that scene could not have been far from the truth. Paulson really reflects Wallace's frustration well, and is believably too tired in the end to say she told her so.

Ed Harris, while not doing a dead-on imitation of John McCain, effectively reflects the frustration and regret McCain must have felt after choosing Palin as a running mate. McCain may have been capable of dealing with the failing economy and foreign relations, but Palin clearly was not.

While Palin may not have been the sole contributor to McCain's defeat, she undoubtedly threw an anchor off the side of the Straight Talk Express. In the end, Harrelson, as Schmidt, probably would not answer "no" to Anderson Cooper's question of whether he regretted putting Palin on the ticket. His actions and reactions throughout the movie answer that question already.

Review: Game Change (HBO)

"Recount" creator Jay Roach returns to the politico ring with "Game Change" starring Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt, the man behind John McCain's 2008 run for the White House. A straight recount of the vetting of Sarah Palin to the VP post and it's compelling to see Julianne Moore be Sarah Palin (I forgot there was an actress playing her shortly into the movie). Ed Harris fills McCain's shoes with a respectful performance with dignity. All the actors are great, but Moore is absolutely stunning in the dramatic scenes. Roach presents some great moments in history as Palin watches Tina Fey doing an impression of her on SNL (surreal to watch an actor as Palin watching Fey doing Palin). I thought the film makers did a great balance, showing Schmidt as a flawed man who made the mistake of choosing an independent minded woman who has a few major flaws of her own (she is as misinformed as most of the right wing base). Great movie and Moore made me forget she was acting, a perfect performance!

Game Change is the 2012 HBO film about the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign against Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008. First of all, this movie is very well acted by all in it, including the stars: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Ed Harris, and Sarah Pulson. I absolutely loved Julianne Moore's representation of Sarah Palin, if you would've seen her coming, you would've thought it was Sarah herself, the hair and makeup crew did a fantastic job with that. In many scenes tensions run high and there is a lot of fighting, and the actors really come out and shine in those scenes, which was very cool to see. The chemistry between all the characters really clicked as well. The dialogue in the film is also very good and well put together. A lot of people claimed this film was just a bunch of liberals painting conservatives in a bad light, although that's not what they did at all. They simply took the facts that were in the book Game Change and visualized them through film. This movie was very well acted and written, Game Change will also make you very thankful for the outcome of the 2008 presidential election haha. 7/10 for Game Change.

This film is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the most failed act of political cynicism in recent American history: the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate for his 2008 presidential campaign. We are introduced to a candidate, John McCain, and a campaign, lead by Steve Schmidt, that is on it's knees. They are desperate and in need of a break, and they throw a Hail Mary pass to Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin. But she is only the first in a series of Hail Mary passes to come. Woody Harillson gives perhaps his best performance ever as Steve Schmidt, a man who is rearranging the deck chairs on this flailing campaign, as fast as he can, before it disappears below the surface. Ed Harris turns in his usual masterful interpretation of a complicated-underneath, but simple-on-the-surface, character, as John McCain. But it is Julianne Moore that is the steel girder of this narrative. She is the embodiment of what we now know to be the Palin phenomenon with all of it's cartoonish qualities and, by equal measures it's dire, and potentially catastrophic, possibilities. Moore delivers, subtly, the Palin we all know, overflowing with unfounded, unearned, unqualified, confidence.

The script is very well written and the pace of the story is exact. The final tableau of Sarah Palin standing on stage with McCain at his concession speech, hearing the crowd swell with the mention of her name, was reminiscent of Glenn Close gasping for air as she rose from the bathtub in the final scene of "Fatal Attraction". As Palin winks her cash-register-eyes you can almost see dollar signs in her pupils, and hear a "ka-ching" sound foreshadow the future. It will send a chill up your spine.

My only complaint about this film has nothing to do with its production values. It's a great film and will be well rewarded, deservedly, when the Emmys are handed out. My complaint about this film has to do with its politics. Sarah Palin was MUCH worse than she was portrayed in this film. Forget "anonymous" sources. Just look at the public record. The writers, in an attempt to appear "fair", intentionally leave out the most egregious information gaffs in both the Gibson and Couric interviews. No one can forget the moment when Charles Gibson asked Sarah Palin about the "Bush Doctrine" and she had no idea what he was talking about. Or when Katie Couric asked her if she could recall "one Supreme Court decision" with which she disagreed (Roe v. Wade!!!) and she couldn't name one. Those were iconic moments in this chilling brush with cataclysm. But their omission was not the worst offense done by the editing that no doubt softened Palin's image. The worst was how her gaffs WERE introduced to the film viewer. One of them is parroted to us through the infamous SNL skit with Tina Fey, on a hotel television, as a cringing Sarah Palin watches. This omission from the direct storyline (as it really occurred), and indirect delivery through the "liberal" media (SNL) made Palin look less clueless than she actually was. And made the "lame stream media" look predatory and cruel. They were not. Result: undeserved sympathy for the central character, Sarah Palin.

Sadly, this is what HBO does. They play things down the middle even when the facts have clearly crossed over the median and are speeding the wrong way into oncoming traffic. When "what do you read" is considered "gotcha", we're way out of balance. And HBO manufacturing an artificial balance where there was none before? Not good. There are not always two equal sides to a story. HBO's dilution of the real story as it unfolded, in an attempt to seem "unbiased", does a disservice to this otherwise brilliant film, and to history.

Game Change shows us the worst in political gamesmanship - the unbridled cynicism that lead an all male campaign staff to choose a political bimbo to be "a seventy-two year old heartbeat away from the presidency". And it shows us the worst in American political celebrity in the form of Sarah Palin with all of her race baiting and blind religious ideology that substitute for facts in her view of the world. She is oblivious to the geo-political winds that howl around this planet. Yet she would not hesitate to invade Iraq all over again because "Saddam Hussein attacked us on 911". Yes, seven years after 911 she was still unaware that that was a lie because her faith and her convictions substituted for the facts. This, I think more than anything, is what this story comes down to. The world is complicated and dangerous and the levers of power should not be in the hands of someone who is uninformed, reckless, and misguided. The stakes are simply too high.

Amazingly good solid film. Julianne Moore is brilliant as Sarah Palin, and the rest of the cast - equally wonderful! The script is solid too, and keeps your interest, even if you remember every nuance of the Presidential race and the story we lived through. I don't want to say too much about the actual production, because it is so well done, mixing reportage with the actors. Mixing journalists with the actors.

It really is great. Congratulations to everyone at HBO and I really really really hope the film will be released in theatres around the country. It deserves the widest possible audience as possible.

I don't think it matters if you are Republican or Democrat, who you voted for or didn't vote either. The film is good, fair, interesting and well done.

Well, there's the usual proviso that any film purporting to portray real people, real events and 'what really happened' has to be taken on trust, and I have no way of knowing just how accurate or not this film is.

Game Change has been accused of being liberal propaganda but to be honest if that's the case everyone apart from La Palin herself doesn't come out of it too badly, and Ed Harris's John McCain presents us with a principled, decent and honest man. And even Palin is shown to be more out of her depth than anything else, the wrong choice despite at first seeming like the right one. Out of curiosity I watched two clips from the film (interviews with Palin) side-by-side with the real thing after a search on YouTube and, well, they were virtually identical. Some scenes, by their very nature - Palin alone with her husband Todd - have to be fiction, but yet again none actually puts the boot in Palin. What is notable, and the continuing (at the time of writing) campaigns by several men to represent the Republicans in November 2012's election is in a way pertinent, is the amount of grassroots support Palin seemed and still seems to have: there are apparently a lot of Republicans out there who prefer to call a spade a bloody shovel and can't be doing with all the sophisticated film-flammery of the Washington elite. And for them Palin was a voice, she was their woman. You might disagree - and disagree fundamentally as I do - with what she has to say, and you might even conclude that but for an engaging manner, a pretty presentable face and a team of desperate spin doctors, she might well have remained an unknown everywhere except Alaska, but you cannot, in all honesty, deny her the right to say what she says. If we have the right, then so does she.

If we deny her that right, then we shouldn't be surprised if sooner or later some crud will try to deny us that right, too. Palin dropped out of the current race quite early on, but her brand of downhome republicanism still has a lot of supporters, and it would be wise to take note of that fact. Like it or not, Palin spoke and speaks for quite a few people. She articulates for them what they would like to say but cannot themselves articulate. Perhaps liberals reading this review would have preferred that the film slags off Palin in no uncertain terms, but it doesn't. It does show her to be finally an endorsement short of the winning ticket, but I think she was that any way.

Overall, I thought Game Change is a reasonable account of part of the political process. Ed Harris, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore and the rest get top marks for their performances, and for me there was nothing bogus about it and, above all, the film was very entertaining. So what's there not to like about it?

Excellent movie! Reminds me that Sarah Palin was not anywhere near ready to be picked for Vice President. Movie does make you feel sorry for Palin. But, than again thinking more about what has happened since the 2008 election and NOT feeling sorry for her. If she were anything like the "victim" then she would NOT keep trying to be in the national public eye. I sure hope she finally realizes she will NEVER be a national political figure. Anything else is just a scary thought. Julianne Moore did an excellent job playing Sarah Palin and she got it right in saying this movie shows what's wrong with our democracy. When someone like John McCain can pick a Vice President candidate purely for political purposes KNOWing she was NOT fit to be President (which IS the primary job of a Vice President), then you know this is a problem for our country.

"We need to create a dynamic moment in this campaign or we're dead." During the historic election of 2008 John McCain was trailing Barack Obama and was in danger of falling farther behind. He was losing all demographics and with the Republican convention approaching he needed a shot of life to his campaign. He got it in his choice for running mate. Sarah Palin gave them the jolt they wanted, but this movie shows the cost of that bump. I am a huge political junkie and was looking forward to this movie. I will start by saying the the acting is incredible. Ed Harris looks and sounds like John McCain and Julianne Moore pulls off the impossible, she may be a better Palin then Tina Fey. The actual movie though is just OK to me. I liked it and could really go either way with Palin but it felt to me like almost one long attack on her. Could have just been me but the movie portrayed her as almost bi-polar and dumber then we think she is (which is hard to do). I recommend this and I did enjoy it but I'm interested to see how much of this is accurate and how much is "doctored" for dramatic license. Overall, not bad, I'm just not sure how truthful the movie is. Worth seeing though. I say B.

I don't love Sarah Palin, but unlike this movie I am not out to get her. This was the biggest bag of crap that I have ever seen. This movie is full of constant lie after lie. Lie number 1, Sarah Palin was picked off YouTube and not vetted at all. Lie number 2, Sarah Palin is a complete idiot. They made it seem like Sarah Palin didn't know who we fought in WWII. They said she thought Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11. Both lies and are only 2 of many. Lie number 3, John McCain regretted the decision to chose her. REPEATEDLY, time after time, McCain has said that he does not regret the choice to have Palin on the ticket. He also contends that he won't see this movie because the book it was based of was also full of lies. The worst part of the movie is that the liberal democrats who wrote/acted in this movie couldn't even show the character of the people they were "portraying." While the movie did paint McCain as the great statesman's he his (regardless if you agree with his politics)they had him cursing all time, which he doesn't do, and the character in the movie didn't think or act the same way he does in real life. The most disappointing charter was obviously Palin herself. While I will say the acting was actually pretty good that's all it was acting. She is absolutely nothing like she is in the movie. They painted her as a crazy, self-absorbed, and utterly stupid woman who was more concerned with her looks and poll numbers in Alaska than serving the country. They made it seem like when she did something wrong in an interview it was because she was stupid, but when she did well at the debate it was because she memorized the answers. They had her throwing a phone against the wall and completely disregarding the people that wanted to help her. More lies. Finally, the most disgusting part about this movie is the fact that it is based on unnamed sources and people who work for the other party now. It also attempts to bash the right by making the people in the party seem racist and stupid, while making Obama look like a god. It conveniently focuses on on the losing VP candidate rather than the person who was hand picked and is in the white house today. I'm not saying Sarah Palin wasn't hand picked to be VP for political reason, but why focus on her when the president who was less experienced than her was chosen for the same reasons. Like him or not, it is undeniable that the left hand picked a well spoken African American person who would be a better candidate then Hilary Clinton. Yet instead of making a movie about the guy who actually won they chose to degrade Sarah Palin. Look I'm all for a movie that shows how screwed up our political system is, but to make up facts and blatantly lie while being completely one sided is not the way to do it. Honestly, this movie makes me sick. I would tell you to see it and decide for yourself, but I don't want you to waste your time or give these scumbags any money. In short this movie sucks don't see it.

You know what I expected from this film? A brutally simplistic mockery of the last Republican campaign just before the next one starts happening – it seemed an open goal and it seemed that the film was made too soon to be able to be objective and probably had no intention of being so anyway. Imagine my surprise when I found myself watching a film that, some cheap shots aside, is generally fair and balanced in how it plays back the McCain campaign. The film picks up the plot just as McCain is struggling against Obama and decides to play a wild-card by bringing in a poorly vetted Senator Palin to try and win key voter share back. The gambit starts out working great but, for several reasons, it quickly starts to unravel while the Obama campaign only gets stronger.

It is worth me saying at this point that I am pretty liberal in my politics and that I did nothing but laugh at Palin throughout her campaign, all the way till I shed a few tears over Obama's victory speech as I watched it at 6am in the UK. I continue to look at her working as a "talking point" pundit on Fox and marvel at her ability to provide generic bile and if I am honest, I would not have been totally dismayed if this film had been a two-hour kicking of her. However what we actually get is much better and fairer than this and it is only really at the back end of the film where it shows its colours by having a few unnecessary lines and digs thrown in there to no real benefit. The film shows that he McCain campaign took a necessary risk with their candidate and that the risk didn't pay off. It shows that Palin is not some glassy eyed idiot but rather a person who is overwhelmed at first but then makes the mistake of believing her own hype on the news after one successful debate.

This is done in such a way that it works – it doesn't suggest that it was deliberate or that these people are those portrayed on the news, but rather than both decisions and mistakes were made. If anything one could argue that the film doesn't do enough to show how much the campaign got away from under McCain's team – look at the "he's an Arab" moment here, it is much more gentle than the reality, which saw McCain frantically grasp the microphone from his target voter and quickly correct her – in the film it is much softener than that. This change in the campaign is fairly pinned on Palin and it shows her starting to believe her own press and believe that being herself is the all whereas really her stage-managed self was the thing that worked. I liked that her advisors all had that worried look when she spoke, all knew they were training someone who desperately needed training as opposed to polishing and all could see the risk going south.

She isn't presented as an idiot though. Palin is a real person here and you feel for her as she feels out of her depth and also as she convinces herself that she is more than she really is. It also allows you to understand why she goes this path and it is certainly not a mockery of her because it is fair and it is intelligently done. There are several moments and lines later in the film that don't play as fair though and these are rather unnecessary and blunt, but mostly it is well done. The cast do pretty well considering. Moore is not just another Tina Fey but, thanks to the script, really gets her character and makes something of it. Harris starts well as McCain but his character is rather lost in events and I thought he deserved more – and, in fairness, I thought the real McCain was better. Harrelson delivers a strong performance throughout and it is in his character that the impact of Palin is played out – he gives it straight as a political player and it works well. The support cast is full of faces from MacNicol to Livingston to Altman and generally they all do a good job.

Overall then, this is an engaging and intelligent film that more or less manages to be fair and balanced in regards the presentation of the McCain campaign. It shows the decisions and risks within the campaign and the development of brand Palin in a way that is clear and even-handed and it makes for a good film as a result. Not perfect but certainly much better than what I expected.

Do i need to write more than stating the plain fact that the movie won 5 Emmys? When i heard of the film long time back when HBO announced the project, i thought we'll come across another political drama with characters delivering dialogues in prolonged scenes endlessly but when the time came and i got to watch the film, i realized how wrong i was. Jay Roach's film is one of the finest movie experiences of the year.

What makes it a movie which should be watched by everyone is the fact that it's not an ordinary political drama. It engages you from the start and even though you know how it'll all end, you surprisingly stay hooked till the very end with an urge to find out how the story progresses and concludes. To create that feel in the movie is very difficult particularly when the topic is a recent history by which almost everyone who reads news is aware about.

The film is also a satirical comedy with witty one-liners and characters make you laugh at times. The screenplay by Danny Strong is very comprehensive, precise, concise and all in all very effective. The film in entirety leaves a mark, thanks to vivid characterizations and gripping series of events depicted in the film.

I've always believed that even a boring story can be told with vigor, energy and effectiveness if the casting is good, here the cast just is perfect and their portrayals are highly convincing. Woody Harrelson, Ed Harris, Sarah Paulson and Ron Livingston were pitch-perfect.

But it was Julianne Moore (an actress i admire so much) in her Emmy winning performance who completely steals the movie with her meticulous performance as Sarah Paline. Every expression that passes on her face is praiseworthy. The way she speaks, debates, walks and carries herself are so immaculately captured by the actress that she ends up carrying the entire film flawlessly. This performance is another shining medal in her illustrious career.

It is highly recommended that do yourself a favor and watch this film, it is even for those who get severely bored and take a snooze in political dramas. This one believe me will keep you awake, till the very end and i mean it.

Every once in a while there is a movie with three or more A-listers in which each of them is as strong as the other. It's very hard to accomplish and I can probably only name a handful ("The Departed" and "Ocean's 11" come to mind). "Game Change" is one such movie. Ed Harris, Julianne Moore, and Woody Harrelson were exceptional like each one fed off the performance of the other. Even Sarah Paulson, who played Palin's prepper Nicole Wallace, put in a brilliant performance.

Julianne Moore played the oft-mocked Sarah Palin in a behind the scenes drama of the whirlwind that was Sarah Palin in the John McCain presidential campaign. "Game Change" was funny, provocative, dramatic, and phenomenal. I don't think I've enjoyed a political movie this much since "Recount" which was also an HBO Films movie.

I can believe that the real people portrayed by Woody Harrelson and Ed Harris would have conversations like the ones shown at the beginning of this Bioflick, showing with almost unbearable precision why the people overwhelmingly chose John McCain's opponent in 2008. I only started paying attention to politics in the 2008 election: when Sarah Palin made her acceptance speech after being picked to be VP Candidate, I remember her first words to the public as being more antagonistic over her party's then-opponent than this film shows.

Julianne Moore becomes Sarah Palin for this 2-Hour jaunt back to 2008: So much so that it scares me, just like the original Sarah Palin did in 2008 when I walked out of a friends house on the night she made her acceptance speech, when I had been planning on voting for McCain and changed my mind due to the first words out of Sarah Palin's Mouth.

Why did it take the McCain campaign so long to see what I saw within thirty seconds? They wanted to believe that she had something substantive to offer an administration. But they believed in something that did not exist, and this film in great documentary style shows us exactly why this is true.

In 2012 I can see that this was not a fluke, that other people with no qualifications had also been elected to leadership positions, many of them in 2010. This film also deals with this issue: How can uneducated people get elected into these important posts that require extraordinary ability? This film shows us, THIS is how that happens.

Most People do not know what is happening on the other side of the globe, most people do not even know what is occurring on the other side of the towns they live in. John McCain, he knew, and I respected this in him. But all members of an administration need to be as well-informed, because "most people" are not running for elected office. And this film shows step by step how the phrase "Not Enough Experience" when referring to their opponent came back and bit them on the rear end.

As and actress, Julianne Moore shows more talent in representing an historical figure than Palin did when being coached in world politics by the best experts that could be hired by the republican party at the time.

This film depicts the real reason why Palin was selected with clarity and this is what frightens me, I was not aware of the other two possibilities, if McCain had chosen one of his other possibilities, that would have been as much of a bold move as choosing Sarah Palin.

I understand why McCain made the choice after watching this, this movie shows us why this was a mistake. If Republicans wish to be elected and re-elected, they must first have a change of heart that is not just words to get them elected, what they say has to be heartfelt and honest, and they must DO what they say they are going to do, because "We the People" can tell if they are not being honest, we can smell what is bogus, even with the McCain campaign sequestering Palin from media access for the first part of their campaign, she had already laid down quite a reputation which the vetting process failed to dig into.

2008 was the last election where limited funds were available for campaigning for either side. We see today that this policy of keeping a lid on the amount any special interest group can donate was a wise policy and needs to be put back into place - It was to make sure that the people's voice is more important to any given election. And the people's voice could be heard loud and clear on Election Day 2008. Since 2010 and the unfortunate "victory" of "citizen's united" this voice now has to work much harder than ever in being heard.

But we also see that even with obstacles like "citizens united" people who believe will do what it takes to make that voice heard.

I believe the biggest mistake of the McCain/Palin campaign was that the party did not learn from that mistake and instead of having what was needed-A Change of Heart over a Change of Game - They have gone for burying the people's true political voice, by loud special interest group noise, by trying to suppress voters who will likely vote against them, and by changing policy on issues more times per minute than any transistor J/K Flip-Flop circuit.

If the republican party wants my vote ever again in the future, it will take more than a change of game. They need to change all of their archaic policies. Because this is the 21st century, not the 16th, and we live in a democracy, not a theocracy. And if anyone does not know what a theocracy looks like they forget the government which imprisoned over fifty American citizens for 444 days back in 1979-81.

Based on a book about the entire 2008 Presidential election, this movie focuses on a narrow subset of the book, specifically the choice to run Sarah Palin as Vice President and the consequences it had for John McCain's campaign. While I like the first half of this, which shows why McCain felt he had to pick her in order to win and what her strengths and weaknesses as a candidate were, I thought the second half was fairly disgraceful. I would not be surprised to find out that Steven Schmidt was somehow directly involved in the production of this movie, since it portrays himself and McCain as helpless to stop Palin from bringing the campaign into darker territory than they wanted to. Scenes that show McCain looking distressed as crowds call Obama a terrorist while Palin relishes the development strike one as insincere, and really as attempt to whitewash certain individuals. I never thought I could feel sorry for Palin, but this feels like a hatchet job.

The irony of GAME CHANGE is that it reveals more about liberal hypocrisy and the flaws of the feminist elite than it does about the rise and fall of Sarah Palin. What comes across most clearly is not that Sarah Palin was unqualified but that the college-educated women on her own team resented her for class reasons that had nothing to do with political ability.

Late in the picture, when Sarah is being criticized, she says something to the effect of, "well, Hillary Clinton does the same thing and no one objects." And then her own female staffer says, "yes, and you're SO MUCH like Hillary." And we're meant to see that as a brilliant put down? Why? Because Sarah Palin's parents weren't rich enough to send her to Wellesley College? Or because she overcame economic and class-based obstacles Hillary never had to face?

The real message of the film is not that Republican policies are wrong but that working class people have no business aspiring to high political office -- or even taking an active interest in politics. If this is really what liberals think then they really are corrupt and dishonest beyond Sarah Palin's wildest dreams.

But I give GAME CHANGE seven stars because Julianne Moore, Edd Harris, and Woody Harrelson all give superb performances. The real tragedy is that the story didn't focus on John McCain. The writers plainly see him as a Shakespearean tragic hero, a noble man undone by the mob, like Brutus or Coriolanus. In this telling, McCain is a principled aristocrat who only discovers midway through the campaign that his own followers are nothing but racist subhuman scum -- and then he proves his tragic stature by deliberately losing the election on principle. Whether you believe that scenario or not, the fact is that McCain emerges as a much more compelling and sympathetic figure than Sarah Palin. Presumably an Annapolis graduate meets the liberal definition of a "well-born" American eligible for high office.

This movie was fascinating and disgusting at the same time. The people who made it are just as bigoted and ignorant as any of the people they attack. Only they don't know it.

Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore) is portrayed as a complete idiot who's great at playing fast and loose with facts. It's very much a two dimensional portrait. Everybody else gets a pass. All the advisers are dumbfounded by her idiocy. John McCain (Ed Harris) is an honorable man who was forced by a losing campaign to dabble in the dark side. All of it would ring true to the political left, and a gotcha journalism to the right. Although the book seems to be deeply well-researched.

As for the acting, Julianne Moore does a good job mimicking. Ed Harris seems to bring a more substantial presence to John McCain. It also stars Woody Harrelson and Sarah Paulson. I do wish for a more 3 dimensional Sarah Palin character. It does look like a movie made by people who talk to and about Sarah Palin rather than anything insightful from Sarah Palin herself.

Julianne Moore appeared on the Tonight Show and claimed that Game Change was non-partisan and has no political agenda which I naively believed. About 10 minutes into the film I realized that was not true.

The film focuses on Steve Schmidt, the former chief-adviser for the 2008 McCain campaign, which happens to be the biggest failure since the Dukakis campaign in 1988. Another key figure is Nicholle Wallace, who was another senior adviser for the McCain campaign. It's worth noting that Schmidt and Wallace have both regularly been trashing Palin since election day 2008 and that Schmidt is now a regular contributor to the ultra-liberal MSNBC.

Woody Harrelson is great in this performance in the sense that I believe it was the intent of the filmmakers to portray Schmidt as an ethical, committed, patriotic, driven man who was simply seeking to do some good for his country. That being the case, Harrelson was great. The problem is there are many reasons to believe that is not the reality with Schmidt. But I am not reviewing reality I am reviewing a movie. Sarah Paulson is uninspired as Nicholle Wallace. Julianne Moore may win an emmy for this role, and not entirely undeservedly so. However the vastly biased narrative did at times lend itself to Moore's portrayal coming across as cartoonish. Ed Harris is somewhat believable as John McCain, but again there are some huge problems with the writing that don't help him, such as McCain's penchant for dropping the f-bomb which seems to have been pulled completely out of nowhere and has been vehemently denied by McCain, along with many other aspects of the book and film.

The plot of the film can be easily summarized: Schmidt and some of his fellow-advisers pick Palin for McCain's running mate after McCain tells them to "get me a woman" (something which never happened BTW). They pick Palin, she does great at first but inevitably the pressure and scrutiny lead her to nearly a nervous breakdown. It's implied that Palin completely misrepresented herself as down-home and folksy but in the campaign became unbearably demanding and at times would slip into a catatonic state. They make it appear as if Wallace was constantly trying to prep her for the infamous Katie Couric interview, but that every time she did Palin refused. At the end of the movie Schmidt apologizes to McCain (also never happened) but in such a way the viewer is clearly supposed to see Schmidt as a noble guy who was just fooled by Palin's wiles.

Not surprisingly Schmidt and Wallace (who many feel were among the unnamed contributors to the book) have sung the film and the book's praises. Palin and McCain have been critical of the book and said they won't watch the movie. And before you think "Well yeah they're just trying to cover their butts." keep in mind that McCain comes out of this movie smelling like a rose. He has no reason to cover his butt.

I suspect the movie and the book are nothing more than attempts to clear the names of Schmidt, Wallace etc. They have all been attacking Palin since election day 2008 and appear to be trying to ingratiate themselves to the liberal community. Accuntability for the failure of the McCain campaign begins with Schmidt, but it appears he is not ready to face that.