Costner: Platform Of 'Swing Vote' Is Comedy

Sure, Kevin Costner, the weight of the presidential election weighs heavy on the shoulders of his character in "Swing Vote," but the veteran film star doesn't want audiences to think that they're going to get bogged down in a boring movie that preaches about the political system.

Video: Kevin Costner, Madeline Carroll Interview

Instead, the Oscar-winner delights in the film's comic elements, and says there's no sense arguing that the movie sides with one party or the other -- because it doesn't.

"Anyone who wants to argue about this, you have to go, 'Wow, life's too short to argue about an American comedy that has a Capra-esque tone to it,'" Costner said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "I think the movie doesn't preach and accepts its own responsibility."

Costner stars as Bud Johnson, a loveable loser who's thrust into the national spotlight when his precocious young daughter, Molly (Madeline Carroll), sets off a chain of events in the last minutes of election night that puts the fate of nation in Bud's hands.

Kelsey Grammer also stars in the film as incumbent President Andrew Boone and Dennis Hopper as his opponent, Donald Greenleaf. The film also stars Paula Patton Madison, a television reporter who breaks Bud's story, and Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane, who play Boone's and Greenleaf's chiefs of staff, respectively.

"Swing Vote" opens Friday in theaters nationwide. Click the links above to see the entire @ The Movies interview with Costner and Carroll.