There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Blistering performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a typical formula romantic comedy in that the couple fight and insult each other for most of the film then suddenly get the hots for each other at the end after getting plastered on home made Canadian beer. It is an unusual romantic comedy in that I found myself hoping the whole film he would escape from her. She was totally wrong for him. She was an soldier in Iraq. He is a rabid peace activist. She lives on junk food and meat. He is a vegetarian. He is highly idealistic. She is totally self centred. He easy going and rational. She is erratic and touchy. There is no attraction besides sex. Usually such differences just create fodder for humour, but in this movie, it turns into a mild horror.The movie is mostly them sniping at each other. There are two other notable scenes.In one they go to meet the boy's father, who seems to think he is Rush Limbaugh, or at least a worshipper. It is quite over the top, packing in every Republican stereotype into a few minutes. It is hilarious, horrifying and depressing.In another scene, he almost marries a gigantic older woman besotted with him that he just met to help him toward Canadian citizenship. It is just creepy.Other than those two scenes, not much happens. It is like travels of a handsome young man with his cranky cat companion. She is not intelligent enough to say anything interesting, and not stupid enough to be amusing.This is a strongly anti-Bush film. It was made by Canadians. It has fun with the stereotypes Americans and Canadians have about each other.

A bland self indulgent vanity project for Marshall Lewy, I guess. Watching this movie my mind quickly begin to drift to why is it when some liberals don't get their guy, or girl, in office they throw a tantrum and threaten to "leave the country." Many of the Hollywood liberal limousine elite seem to do this with a sickening fanfare and right on cue, never follow through on it. God forbid they go somewhere where they cannot make millions of dollars being insecure unchecked narcissists. Conservatives, by contrast, when they lose an election, get mad, dig in, and vow to make a change next time; stay tuned for that in the coming days, by the way. But getting back to this movie; a "comedy?" Where? When? If I want to laugh at a generous dose of unknowns with a low budget on bleak locations playing silly Canadian stereotypes, I'll go watch my old VHS copy of Strange Brew again. Hey, good idea.

The people who ripped into the movie for portraying a one-dimensional Canada or taking potshots at Bush are missing the point.Canada as a locale in the movie is merely a convenient shorthand-- it could have been Mexico or the UK or Australia, the point is that it's a foreign country. Calling 'Blue State' "anti-Canadian propaganda" is a bit like calling South Park's portrayal of egghead Canadians "anti-Canadian propaganda".And, it may be just me, but I felt that 'Blue State' pokes more fun at the Democrat zealot than of Dubya-- for a considerable portion of the movie, and when he's on tirade-mode, it seems to me that John is portrayed as a sad, almost ridiculous figure.That aside, the leads are believable and exhibit romantic chemistry, and make their characters likable. Especially Breckin Meyer-- as written, John is a self-important, uptight person for most of the film, but Meyer imbues his character with humanity.Overall a mild political satire and competent, heartfelt romantic road trip.

UPDATE- check out "RED STATE"(2011) movie; a great parallel to "BLUE STATE"The feature tries to inoculate the concept that IF you are an activist , you must be so because YOU ARE NOT NORMAL(Anna Paquin is being used as the ROLE MODEL, apparently the ONLY sane American in the feature.) this is targeting young people by trying to confuse their perceptions of anything that IS "white" OR "black". (warning)first i must say that i am Canadian by assimilation, and while not having an American voting card, i was just as disappointed of George bush re-election as man others were, especially since his actions in oval office DO have a global impact no matter where you live. "blue state" is exactly about this, more precisely about A disgruntled "democrat" that after the re-elections of 2004 is on his way to Canada, running away from g.w.b because his vote "did not matter".why 2 stars? because this movie attempts to play on my feelings, from "incentives" such as a pretty woman (by the way god forbid for anyone to have such a girlfriend) to "happy endings"(no matter how unhappy this administration could make you). also it is very racist and anti-Canadian.basically over 1 hour of "liberal" and Canadian sympathy that turns into a HATE movie against all the above. (just cant believe that the director would make the only black man in the feature a TERRORIST in concept. WOW, have not seen such covered racism in a while...) . I CAN NOT BELIEVE THEY MAKING A MOCKERY OF THE Canadian PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM by implying that IF YOU JOIN THE US ARMY YOU CAN HAVE A BETTER ONE(health care)...WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER MILLIONS Americans THAT HAVE NU SUCH DARK "PASSIONS" or can NOT easily be lied to? if you are a CONSERVATIVE, you will likely love this movie and i mean that literally, if watch it all..if you are an anti-bush activist you will certainly dislike it (again, must see it entirely.surprisingly, on the feature's artistic merits, i was quiet WELL pleased UNTIL THE LAST 20-30 MINUTES!. 5 minutes of watching THIS got me hooked up at first. while it is not a "fast" movie per-see, it is VERY rich in ideas and thoughts including self induced criticism.Breckin Meyer plays excellent and seems very comfortable in the character's skin. his attitude creates quiet many comic aspects without getting anywhere close to the "geek" side(and make some mockery out of this). he is also very passionate in a very passive-aggressive way.he represents quit well the typical north American male just as much as Anna Paquin represents its female counterpart. the whole production is targeting Americans only since there are MANY "clichés" that could not easily be applied even to Canadian "lifestyles" for example( then think the rest of the non-English world...). towards Canadians like myself there are plenty of insults (from the the marry-a-Canadian matrimonial agency in its objective or , the Canadian border officer that dislikes American beer because it tastes like "s--t",etc).at times i was not sure if this production took "cheap" shots at me or other Canadians, but regardless, the director did it with "gusto" and i can appreciate that until the twist that makes the whole feature PURE PRO-PRESENT ADMINISTARTION PROPAGANDA.(even the ideas in the movie imply that "bush" OR "kerry" are THE SAME THING) for example i had nor seen or heard of "40 inch" size pizza order, looks hilarious do)). so many clichés about how Canadians have good times at parties drinking tons of beer apparently, he he. or the "tall poppy syndrome" joke that had me burst laughing)))).two poor sensitive Americans being exposed to all this that is Canadian and the Canadians themselves, apparently still having that old fashioned "cave" mentality .check also the quick argument about universal health care in US ARMY...jaw-breaking and disgusting shameless advertisement. there are a couple of scenes that will hit your emotional perceptions quiet strongly. the dialogues are witty, and REALISTIC as seen or heard from "public" versus "private" eye opposing views. a great deal of naivety versus maturity; a real life condition versus a desired one.the last 20 minutes are a complete racist,xenophobe and naive RIDE hidden within a romantic and stereotype nutshell.one scene i did not find appealing at all ; when a black man says (why had to be black, again with stereotypes??)"i wish that m... dead, look at me i am running from my own country like a refugee" and Anna Paquin hears that......she gives this "superior" stance, very irritating, of a superior "moralist" she sees herself as.it gets WORSE after ...i CAN NOT BELIEVE i actually wasted my time to watch this, even if i loved most of the movie until it tried to TWIST everything up!(especially from the comments made by the American loving in Canada for 35 years because he ran away from the draft in Vietnam)