Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin: The 'uncanny' side-by-side footage

(Image credit: YouTube)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: Long before the March 10 HBO premiere of Game Change, the movie adaptation of the eponymous book, HBO released the first photo of Julianne Moore in her role as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Did she look the part? "You kinda sorta betcha!" said James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly. As the film proved, however, Moore's ability to channel Palin went well beyond looks, says Troy Patterson at Slate. Aside from nailing the accent and the intonation, she "aced the immodest task of humanizing the media beast called Sarah Palin," and delivered a performance "so compassionate" that you forget you're not actually watching Palin herself. Now, a buzzy new YouTube video (watch below) that painstakingly compares Moore's impersonation with real footage of Palin only reinforces the "uncanny" similarities.

The reaction: Whatever your political leanings, the video presents an almost airtight argument that Moore is "absolutely dead on in her portrayal of Palin's voice, mannerisms and attitude," says Jordan Zakarin in The Hollywood Reporter. "It's difficult to think of 12 minutes that simultaneously give you a great appreciation for the craft of acting and also make you want to throttle someone," says Cassie Murdoch at Jezebel. Still, it's hard not to long for Tina Fey's Saturday Night Live version of the former Alaska governor because "as good as she is, Moore doesn't have the true glint of crazy in her eyes that Palin naturally has (and which somehow Tina Fey managed to capture perfectly)." Check out the video comparison: