Game Change (2012)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 37
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 13
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Critic Reviews: 23
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 1,624
Movie Info
The 2008 U.S. presidential campaign shifts into high gear after Arizona senator John McCain (Ed Harris) picks Alaska governor Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore) to be his running mate in the general election against Barack Obama. Based on the book Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi
Jan 8, 2013
HBO
Watch It Now
Cast
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Julianne Moore
Sarah Palin -
Ed Harris
John McCain -
Woody Harrelson
Steve Schmidt -
Sarah Paulson
Nicolle Wallace -
Peter MacNicol
Rick Davis -
Jamey Sheridan
Mark Salter -
Ron Livingston
Mark Wallace -
David Barry Gray
Todd Palin -
Larry Sullivan
Chris Edwards -
Mikal Evans
Bexie Nobles -
Colby French
Tucker Eskew -
Bruce Altman
Fred Davis -
Spencer Garrett
Steve Biegun -
Brian Howe
Randy Scheunemann -
John Rothman
A.B. Culvahouse -
Austin Pendleton
Joe Lieberman -
Alex Hyde-White
Lindsey Graham
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All Critics (39) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (13) | DVD (2)
Try as the filmmakers might, it just isn't the same. How could it be, really?
Top CriticActress Moore makes one actually feel sorry for Sarah Palin at points in this wonderful film.
The dramatic re-creations are somewhat uneven: The convention staging is quite convincing, the campaign trail less so.
The constant use of actual news footage adds a bit of verisimilitude but also constantly raises the question of why this lightly fictionalized version of the election actually needs to exist.
Game Change, which explores how smart people make dumb decisions, is a movie for all of us.
The movie is more balanced than I expected.
It's a comedy, for at least 30% of its running time, leaving the rest a condensed, perplexing vision of Washington ambition and insistent ego, leaving the movie somewhere between a cartoon and a mean-spirited prank.
The reality is that HBO's Game Change makes a bad showing by arming game and gifted players with a weak and labored script.
Game Change is not one-sided, exactly. It is, instead, uneven and episodic.
It plausibly lays out Palin's path from unsteady candidate to confident (or arrogant) rogue player.
That it works is testament to an astounding, Emmy-worthy performance by Moore, who plays Palin with nuance, and without a trace of parody.
We're no longer disappointed that Tina Fey didn't get the role that ended up going to Julianne Moore.
Game Change might have felt fresh had it hit the airwaves in 2010, but in 2012 it's just more of the same.
The most egregious fault to be found here is that Roach and Strong succumb to the same indulgences as the news media they're so happy to critique.
Game Change is a big disappointment, a broadside at a very big target, and a waste of some impressive talent in front of and behind the camera.
Audience Reviews for Game Change
Super Reviewer
Overall, a well made movie. Julianne Moore does wonderfully in her attempt to add color to the most colorful character in recent politics, and Woody Harrelson proves again that he is one of the finest actors of the generation. Entertaining and fun, in a History channel sort of way.
Super Reviewer
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- Steve Schmidt: There are unknowns with Palin, and ah, certainly it could go bad. But if it were me, I'd rather lose by ten points going for the win than lose by one point and look back and say 'Goddamn, we should have gone for the win'.
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- Rick Davis: Listen, I too wish that the American people would choose the future Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson, but unfortunately, that's not the way it works anymore. Now it takes movie-star charisma to get elected President, and Obama and Palin, that's what they are - they're stars.
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- John McCain: You're one of the leaders of the party now Sarah. Don't get co-opted by Limbaugh and the other extremists. They'll destroy the party if you let them.
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