The trailer for “Game Change,” the forthcoming HBO movie adapted from John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s sensational account of the 2008 presidential race, almost plays like a spoof: You can practically hear the needle slide off the record when the montage showing Sarah Palin’s rise, gloriously (if archly) soundtracked by “American Woman,” suddenly tumbles into the campaign’s crash-and-burn. “I’m not sure how much she knows about foreign policy,” a hapless aide murmurs over moody soundtrack synthesizer, the Guess Who echoing impotently in the background.
Next thing you know, Palin, flawlessly played (here, at least) by Julianne Moore, is going rogue — “I so don’t want to go back to Alaska,” she sasses — and John McCain (Ed Harris, gray all over) and adviser Steve Schmidt (unstoned Woody Harrelson) are freaking the fuck out: “What have we done? I can’t control her anymore!” Schmidt whines off camera, presumably clutching his cojones. Cinematically speaking, Palin may as well be Chucky, or a Mogwai given a midnight snack. Although the sheer amount of drama packed into what, on the outside, might seem to be a wonky story puts this in the category of “The Social Network.” The question, then, is this: Will Moore’s potrayal of a Palin, herself a remarkable although flawed construction for most Americans, become realer than real? Years from now, when folks think of Sarah Palin, will they really be thinking of Julianne Moore? The lipstick, in any case, is on the pitbull now.