BLUE STATE on DVD

Written by Fantasma el Rey

Blue State is a nice little romantic comedy about a young man who decides to pack up and move to Canada after the 2004 reelection of George W. Bush. Along the way he discovers and grapples with who he is and what he is really hoping to accomplish in life.

We follow John Logue, (Breckin Meyer) a young man in San Francisco dedicated to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry as he gives his all in the hope that a Democrat will win the office. In disbelief that people want “Dubya” to remain in power, John makes a televised, drunken, election-night promise to move to Canada if Bush wins again.

Ah, the day after. John feels as if he’s in a surreal world, a nightmare he can’t wake from as Kerry has thrown in the towel after being dealt a knockout blow from the nation that voted Bush back in. John, head hung low, attempts to put his life back in order by getting back his job, which he quit, and his girlfriend, who he put on hold. Both are now unavailable and John begins to ponder the future as friends continue to hound him about the promise he made the night before. As the pressure mounts for him to keep his word, John starts to seriously consider the move as a political statement

Further sparked by a call from the founder of “Marry a Canadian,” John begins looking for a traveling buddy and finds the blue-haired, attractive young Chloe (executive producer Anna Paquin) and the trip begins. Along the way we explore John’s obsession with the evils of the Bush government as he yaps about it as often as he can. We also see how the two differ; John is the organized “tight ass” while Chloe is relaxed and blunt. We also discover their secret pasts that brought them to this point in life.

John comes from a hardcore Republican family, who we get to meet as the pair stops at John’s childhood home in Washington. John’s father communicates with his family like he’s hosting a right-wing call-in radio show while his mother plays obedient housewife as both are in denial of their youngest son’s death in the Middle East. All of this is what fuels John’s far-left, Democratic beliefs.

Then there is mysterious Chloe who stays quiet and reveals her secret moments away from the Canadian border; she is a U.S. soldier and only child from a long line of war heroes skipping out on her second tour of duty. Chloe tires to back out and return to her family and her troop, but John bravely pushes her forward. He couldn’t save his brother so he’s going to save her, so into Canada they go further into the adventure.

They meet two people in Canada that serve as guides to help the duo deal with their problems and the questions of what to do next in their lives. Gloria, the women who runs the “Marry a Canadian” service out of her house like a 1960s political, sex commune provides John with insight to what Canadians think of their “stupid, fat” U.S. neighbors. While showing John around town and taking him to get their marriage license, John begins to realize that his political statement may be flawed. After deciding that the citizen by marriage route is not for him, he grabs Chloe and makes a mad dash away from the chaos of the commune.

While on the run the pair meets the second guide, an older man who lives in a “Lincoln log” cabin. The wise old man reveals he is an American draft dodger and a former student of Columbia University involved in a student takeover sometime in the ‘60s. In this old man’s regrets John and Chloe both can see that they are only running from their own problems and personal issues. What to do? Like true Americans they buck up, stay strong, and head home to face their futures, one to a court martial and the other to four years of political despair.

Have no fear all your Hollywood hopes come true and (here comes the spoiler) they live happily ever after and drive off into the California sunset. Chloe apparently does some time in a military prison, while John stops running from his issues and runs for the state senate, setting him on the path to making a true political statement.

Even though the film became a bit hokey right about the time Chloe’s secret is revealed and as a romantic comedy it has to follow a template we are all to familiar with, I enjoyed Blue State because Breckin Meyer and Anna Paquin worked so well together.

The DVD comes with just a director's commentary and is a full screen/widescreen combo.