David Gordon Green’s uneven Wag the Dog-style satirical political romp takes both its title and theme from Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary about the role played by the gun-for-hire American consultants in the 2002 Bolivian elections. Sandra Bullock (who shares producer credits with, among others, George Clooney and Grant Heslov) is the reclusive political strategist “Calamity” Jane Bodine, who turned her back on her profession after one dirty trick too many.
Reluctantly enlisted to help elect the unlikable bully Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida), Jane gets the bit between her teeth when she discovers that her arch-rival, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), is running the opposition’s campaign. Screenwriter Peter Straughan’s script originally featured a male protagonist, but Bullock makes the role her own, from vomiting into a wastepaper basket and mooning the opposition to shrewdly choreographing an on-air attack of tears for her candidate. Meanwhile, Thornton employs his well-honed smiling/sneering shtick to nicely nasty effect. A shame, then, that the movie loses its cynical nerve with an utterly phoney finale that ties itself up in conscientious knots.
