"Bulworth" Gets My Vote
Brash and rude, yet refreshingly funny, "Bulworth", is an usual film about an unusual politician who decides to do something drastic about his tumultuous career as an incumbent Senator. With the election just about a week away, Jay Bulworth (Warren Beatty) grows noticeably weary of his life and his career. Big money from special interest groups have long guided his career towards an undesirable destination, far from the original ideals that put this man in public office. Bulworth promotes family values in his campaign commercials, but his wife is having an affair while his daughter shows no interest in his political career. Politics have become a fiasco. On top of that, he has lost his fortune in a risky investment. As his zest for life and politics fades, he stops sleeping and eating. He is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and takes out a contract on his own life.
Knowing that he has only a limited time to live, he embarks on the last leg of his campaign. With a renewed sense of freedom, he dispatches with his old, dry speeches and begins to tell it like it is, off the cuff and in your face. At a black church, he shocks the audience by telling them that no one cares about their plight because they don't contribute to his campaign. At a private party of movie-making contributors, he tells them that their products are 'crap'. His behavior causes his aide, Dennis Murphy (Oliver Platt), to go ballistic as he tries to apply spin control to this volatile situation. Platt makes a very funny sidekick as all of his attempts to guide the Senator back to normalcy are ignored.
Meanwhile, the Senator's raw stance has attracted a group of black females, including Nina (Halle Berry), a smart girl from the 'hood' who is very versed in the urban plight. She brings him into South Central where he gets a first hand look at those that need the most help from city officials but are frequently overlooked in favor of other groups that line the politicians' pockets with money. In this 'hood', he is approached by crack-selling 10-year olds and is introduced to their boss, played by Don Cheadle. He gives a nice performance explaining how the ignorance of the outside world has created an illegal yet viable economy within this community.
Bulworth is a smart Senator and knows that the only way to ignite progress is to create a stronger core and to let the positive effects trickle outwards. In one of the best scenes, he is interviewed on television and begins to vent his frustrations through rapping. Wearing a ski cap, sunglasses, and hip-hop baggy shorts, he angrily states that the real obscenity is not his cursing or his recent raw behavior. The real obscenity is the shabby political system that's currently in place which fails to protect and pull along those that rightfully need the help. His observations are insightful, and the story is the most funny when he shows his irreverence towards those that support him as he becomes the model of political incorrectness. Edgy and smart, the film hits the ground running and doesn't stop its manic pace until the very end. Beatty has given himself a role that he can bite into. It is a sharp satire on the state of American politics, and we can feel its bite as well.
Grade: B
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