As if he were preaching to the choir with his latest film, director David Gordon Green tells us in Our Brand Is Crisis that politics is a dirty business. And with a timely subject matter so ripe for sleazy material, the opportunities with which to entertain us are seemingly endless. How then, does Green fall so short? The answer: he never quite figures out what he wants Our Brand Is Crisis to be.

At times the biting satire that reveals the cynical inner-workings of the political consultant business seems sharply funny and directly on point with Bullock adding her own well-worn brand of frazzled physical comedy as the slightly dishevelled, but brilliant girl who falls down, throws up, and moons the camera frequently. Maybe it works better as a straight-up Sandy Bullock comedy? After all, this is the director of Pineapple Express.

Then at other times Green gets serious in a political drama with loads of heavy musings on the nasty nature of politics and the soul-selling strive to win at all costs. His ever-present message revolves around the serious theme of the corrupting nature of power and how it rots the identity of those ill-equipped to handle it. Perhaps the film might make a bigger impact without Bullock’s comedic element?

Both are worthy ways of telling a story for sure. When done right, humor and gravitas can creatively coexist and even feed off one another to fuel a powerful story with laughter, anger, disgust, and redemption at its core. But the key to bringing both sides together is getting the tone just right. Unfortunately, Green never does.

Whatever it is, Our Brand Is Crisis isn’t the slick political satire that writer Peter Straughan and producer George Clooney were going for. There’s enough good stuff in there to keep us entertained with the occasional beat of broad humor, and the acting is actually quite strong with Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton displaying remarkable chemistry, even though we don’t like either character and care even less about the political results they’ve been hired to produce in a foreign locale. Our Brand Is Crisis never quite distinguishes itself and instead meanders all over the road with a flaky attitude that fails to hammer home the absurdity of politics and isn’t funny enough to make up for its other shortcomings.

Bullock plays “Calamity” Jane Bodine, a deeply wounded political campaign consultant who retired years ago following a scandal that rocked her to her core. Though approached to run the campaign of Bolivian presidential candidate Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida), she’s not interested in returning to the game until she learns that her professional nemesis and personal rival, the loathsome Pat Candy (Thornton) has been hired by the opposition. With teams assembled and key strategies developed, the race for the next Bolivian president is on.

With the personal gossip between the two being flung about as readily as the nasty campaign rhetoric, we quickly learn there are no rules, no ideals, and certainly no holding back as both the political machine and personal insults grind into motion.

Our Brand Is Crisis gets most of its drive from the interactions between Jane and Candy, and the moments they are on the screen together are some of the film’s best  -- even though we don’t feel particularly vested in either and certainly don’t have a dog in the hunt for the remote country’s election. And that’s where some serious problems lie. Even with our own country’s election season afoot, we have no interest in Bolivia’s outcome, and even less understanding of the country's urgency (apparently there has been corruption in the past that led to unrest and violence). All that’s left are Bullock and Thornton – and the consequences of their success or failure in this plot isn’t strong enough to keep us watching.

Based on a documentary of the same name, this film sprang from the real-life Bolivian presidential election when James Carville took his fiery brand of campaign management to South America in 2002. And while undoubtedly a fascinating story for those who study such things, there’s simply not enough power in Green’s version to overcome the dull subject matter. In addition, his chaotic storytelling and uneven tone get in the way of an outcome that should really enrage an audience.

(Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and rated “R” for language including some sexual references.)

Review also posted at www.franksreelreviews.com.