Great acting in a sort of true story in ‘Our Brand is Crisis’

In 2002, Rachel Boynton covered Bolivia’s presidential election. She made a documentary with the same name as this movie. This version of Our Brand is Crisis is a fictionalized account of the election. Only the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent. In real life, the election influencer was Bill and Hilary Clinton’s election-guru buddy James Carville.

He’s played nicely by Billy Bob Thornton, whose head is shaved to look like Carville. Sandra Bullock is his election nemesis and the film’s main character. In real life, she didn’t exist.

The movie does cover the complaints lodged by Boynton in her documentary and shows how two rival spinmeisters position their candidates by playing politics via dirty tricks. Other tactics are the manipulation of the media and of the masses. The “warning” is that these are techniques that have been polished to perfection in the U.S. and are being exported globally.

Our Brand is Crisis is pretty good movie and one that gives Bullock the rare chance to stretch as an actress. She’s moody, funny and distracted, and perfectly cast as the foil to Thornton’s Carville clone.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 6:28 AM with the headline "Great acting in a sort of true story in ‘Our Brand is Crisis’."