From the HBO website:

Starring Kevin Spacey, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr., Laura Dern, John Hurt, Denis Leary, Bruce McGill, and Tom Wilkinson, Recount brings viewers behind the scenes at the controversial Florida recount. This illuminating, hugely entertaining film pulls back the veil on the headlines to explore the human drama surrounding the most controversial presidential election in U.S. history.

Mixing news footage and verbatim dialogue into fictionalized re-creations, Recount examines the torturous process that culminated in the Supreme Court decision in Bush vs. Gore. The Republicans, led by charismatic Texan James Baker, seize the initiative as the case is tried in the judicial system and the court of public opinion. The Democrats play catch-up until Ron Klain, Gore's former chief of staff, takes over and starts matching Baker's political hardball with tough moves of his own. Mutual respect forms between the two as the fate of the presidency plays out among a colorful cast ranging from the impressive (appellate lawyer David Boies) to the maligned (Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris).

Recount recreates many of the movers and shakers in the Florida fight. Among the Democrats are Ron Klain (Spacey), soldiering on despite being demoted as Gore's Chief of Staff; Michael Whouley (Leary), Gore's Chief Field Operative; Warren Christopher (Hurt), the onetime Secretary of State whose passivity eventually yields to Klain's more forceful tactics; and David Boies (Begley), an appellate lawyer recruited to articulate the Democrats' message. Republicans include James Baker (Wilkinson), another former Secretary of State with a will to win to match Klain's; Ben Ginsberg (Balaban), the campaign's Lead Counsel; Katherine Harris (Dern), Florida's Secretary of State, remembered as much for her makeup as for her role in determining the winner; and Mac Stipanovich (McGill), a lobbyist with the moniker "Mac the Knife."

Recount is directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Fockers, Austin Powers films), and written by Danny Strong (best-known as an actor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls). It was executive produced by Roach, Emmy® winner Paula Weinstein (HBO's Truman), HBO Films exec Len Amato (Blood Diamond), and Oscar® winner Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa). The producer is Michael Hausman (Brokeback Mountain).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bocaboy7,

'Recount'
HBO's fine 'Recount' sees a villain in the electoral system itself.

By Mary McNamara
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 23, 2008

A movie about Florida's role in the 2000 presidential election may seem like a no-brainer -- Frantically plotting political camps! Hanging chads! Angry mobs! Katherine Harris! -- but it took more than a little creative courage to make "Recount," which premieres Sunday night on HBO. Like adapting "The Lord of the Rings," distilling an epic political battle into a coherent narrative is not as easy as you'd think, especially when events are still so fresh in everyone's mind. What occurred in Florida may well have been a watershed moment in American and world politics, but it was also a circus, coming down at times to terms as strange and downright silly as "dimpled chad." Which does not play as well on film as, say, a sword fight or even a political mole meeting a reporter in a dark and echoing parking garage.

There is a tension problem -- we know how it ends -- and also an audience problem -- those who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 are probably not interested in revisiting what many saw as an attempt by the Democrats to steal the election. Meanwhile, for those who voted for Vice President Al Gore (and for purposes of this review I acknowledge that I was one of them), the prospect of watching "Recount" may seem like a lesson in futility and frustration. Yes, Gore went on to win the Nobel and his "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary won an Oscar, but just imagine what would be different in this country if he had been president, and isn't it a little too soon to revisit such history-changing heartbreak?

No, it's not. Although its leads are not quite as much fun to look at (apologies to Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary), "Recount" may be the best political movie since "All the President's Men." With an outstanding cast and finely tuned script, "Recount" not only transcends all its potential problems, it also captures both the grim party politics, the strange collision of personalities and the obsessive heroics of a moment that was, for better or worse, unlike any other. Although it does occasionally require its characters to speak in stilted expository paragraphs just to keep viewers in the loop, it makes up for this by a seemingly miraculous ability to make news conferences exciting.

This doesn't mean Danny Strong's script is nonpartisan. The Republicans are surly, ruthless and smooth, a well-oiled machine led by James A. Baker III (Tom Wilkinson) determined to stop the recount at any cost, with no thought to fair play or even the law. When the high-minded Warren Christopher (John Hurt) is brought in, for example, Baker all but licks his chops; Christopher's ideals make him an easy mark for Baker's street-fight tactics. Katherine Harris, flayed brilliantly by Laura Dern, is not only as dippy and self-promoting behind the scenes as the then Florida secretary of state seemed in front of the cameras, she's also being directly advised by Republican operative Mac Stipanovich (Bruce McGill).

There are cursory attempts at balance, mainly the casting of Wilkinson, who radiates an almost genetic decency. His Baker, while ruthless and amoral, genuinely believes that Bush is the real victor. Bob Balaban's Ben Ginsberg is much more obviously odious, though he dutifully keeps up a running commentary about the voter irregularities in the Kennedy-Nixon race so we know there are grievances on both sides. But the heroes of "Recount" are the Democrats, namely Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey), who was Vice President Gore's former chief of staff, and Michael Whouley (Denis Leary), national field director of Gore's presidential campaign; Ed Begley Jr. comes in at the eleventh hour as David Boies, an attorney so formidable he even rattles Baker.

With all this talent on his side, you fully expect Gore to win this time; it's shocking when he doesn't, when we never are able to find out, as Klain demands so plaintively, "who won the damn thing." Spacey, with his round, amiable face and glittering eyes, is a perfect campaign operative, a man who lives in his head and on the phone, a man so thoroughly seduced by the terrible beauty of the political machine that a demotion, and the conciliatory crumb that follows it, is quickly forgotten in the chase to right what he sees as a terrible wrong. Exhausted by the constant thrusts and parries, the decisions and revisions, he wonders if he will even have a career after Florida. "I'm not even sure I like Al Gore," he confides in a bit of shared hysteria with Whouley.

But if the political machinations of the two camps fuel the narrative, "Recount" is not, in the end, about justice-seeking Democrats or scheming Republicans. It's about an electoral system at once so flawed and yet so intoxicated with itself that you cannot help but wonder not just who actually won the 2000 election but who actually won any of our presidential elections. The events in Florida exposed so many overlapping and often incomprehensible flaws in the voting process that it is impossible to list them all. From the schoolyard mentality of party politics to the inconsistent voting regulations, from the arbitrary design of ballots to the possible corruption of the polling places, it's impossible not to wonder whether every state should have had a recount.

The timing of the film could not be better. Not only is it an election year -- everyone please read your ballots carefully and ask questions if you don't understand the design! -- but the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, the staggering economy and a general feeling of dissatisfaction lends a bitter poignancy to "Recount." Had this movie been pitched in the early days of the Bush administration or, impossibly, in the year or two following Sept. 11, it would have never gotten made. But now, figuring out who's to blame for these last eight years has become a national preoccupation, and the key players in Florida seem as good a place to start as any, especially since, as Strong's script makes clear, the election turned on the actions, and non-actions, of so few people.

That may be the most haunting message of "Recount" -- that the most important decision made in this country in 2000 was left up to a handful of pressured and/or partisan people in a few small rooms. And it's good to be reminded that this is not the way a presidential election in the United States of America is supposed to go down.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-recountreview23-2008may23,0,6700705.story

I am really excited for this movie! I can't wait to see it... considering I remember this very clearly...

It should be 05.25 in the title thread. "Recount" airs on HBO starting at 9 PM EST.

Variety's review:
-----------------------------------------------
Recount
(Movie -- HBO, Sun. May 25, 9 p.m.)
by BRIAN LOWRY

Filmed in Florida by Spring Creek/Mirage in association with Trigger Street Prods. and Everyman Pictures. Executive producers, Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, Sydney Pollack, Jay Roach; producer, Michael Hausman; co-producer, Danny Strong; director, Roach; writer, Strong.

Ron Klain - Kevin Spacey
Ben Ginsberg - Bob Balaban
David Boies - Ed Begley Jr.
Katherine Harris - Laura Dern
Warren Christopher - John Hurt
Michael Whouley - Denis Leary
Mac Stipanovich - Bruce McGill
James Baker III - Tom Wilkinson
Mitchell Berger - Bruce Altman
Theresa Lepore - Jayne Atkinson
Clay Roberts - Gary Basaraba

The end of the Bush presidency seems like an appropriate time to sift through the 2000 election's wreckage, with "Recount" serving as just the movie to help pick that scab. Smart, star-studded, and anchored by another fine-tuned performance from Kevin Spacey, "Recount" finds the sweet spot between theatrical fare and TV that's precisely the constituency HBO wants to reach -- a bracing tonic for the pay net's battered "It's not TV" slogan. Some conservatives will surely howl at what they'll perceive as a skewed representation of events, but there's no accounting for sore winners.

Eight years, it turns out, was a proper interval to make this historic look back sing -- revisiting that strange, relatively tiny window where hanging and dimpled chad (which is, oddly, the plural of chad) were all the rage.

Recreating those events with some artistic license, director Jay Roach (he of the "Austin Powers" franchise) and writer Danny Strong zero in on a central premise: That while the Republicans instantly recognized the situation in Florida as being "A street fight for the presidency of the United States" -- as former Secretary of State and Bush fixer James Baker III (Tom Wilkinson) colorfully puts it -- the Democrats characteristically dithered, initially trying to play a "gentlemen's game."

Notably, the two combatants, Al Gore and George W. Bush, are merely disembodied voices in the film. Instead, the movie primarily peers over the shoulder of Gore's former chief of staff Ron Klain (Spacey), as well as a sprawling assortment of characters, with Baker as the centerpiece of the well-orchestrated, slightly dirty, occasionally thuggish GOP campaign to safeguard Bush's slim margin of victory.

Klain almost by default leads the legal battle to get a recount of the Florida vote that determined the election, receiving little help from Democratic elder statesman Warren Christopher (John Hurt), who argues that with the world watching, "Chaos will not help our cause."

If Baker comes across as shrewd and calculating, the Lady Macbeth of the piece is Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (an inspired Laura Dern), whose garish makeup and yearning to please Republican poobahs paint her as a woman intoxicated by this moment in the spotlight.

Although the entire cast is first-rate, coming on the heels of Wilkinson's scene-stealing portrayal of Ben Franklin in "John Adams," HBO might want to consider putting the actor on permanent retainer for all future historical dramas. He manages to render Baker courtly, avuncular, ruthless, and brilliant all at once, with relatively limited screen time.

Roach wraps the story in historical trappings, identifying each character with an onscreen tag and liberally employing newsclips -- including Dan Rather at his Texas-adage-spoutin' best -- to punctuate events.

Certain flourishes, however, do seem ideologically driven and superfluous, among them signaling which president appointed each U.S. Supreme Court justice, or taking a detour to skewer then-Vice Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman in absentia. Nevertheless, the final-credit crawl alongside actual news footage underscores how meticulous the filmmakers were with small details, and Dave Grusin's score merits special accolades.

Klain sums up the uncertainty that still nags at many about the 2000 election, with Spacey saying ruefully that all he wants, finally, is "to know who really won."

From that perspective, despite "Recount's" whimsical tone, the fading Bush presidency provides the movie with its own rather poignant coda. Because given the variables in Florida's mishandled balloting, there will forever be disagreement as to who won the Sunshine State. For the 70% of Americans who now disapprove of Bush's job performance, however, there's little doubt regarding who lost.

Hollywood Reporter's review:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Recount

Bottom Line: Butterfly ballots and hanging chads become the stuff of great political intrigue.

by Barry Garron

May 21, 2008

Airdate: 9-11 p.m. Sunday, May 25 (HBO)

You might expect a movie about the controversial presidential vote in Florida in 2000 to have political wonk written all over it. Sure enough, HBO's "Recount" is replete with inside politics. But it also has well-written characters, first-class acting, and confident directing, which produces a level of tension and suspense you wouldn’t expect in a story about a widely reported recent event.

America has had lots of close elections, but in 2000, it had been 124 years since a candidate took the White House with fewer popular votes than his opponent.

That year, it all came down to Florida's electoral votes. The initial machine count favored Bush by a few thousand votes. Gore and his designee, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, were ready to call it quits. New evidence, however, cast doubt on the numbers. The outcome was much in doubt because of the design of the ballots, the way they were counted, and a purge of voting rolls that illegally denied many a chance to vote.

Gore reversed course, turning the fight in Florida over to Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey),Gore's former chief of staff; national field director Michael Whouley (Denis Leary); and expert lawyer David Boies (Ed Begley Jr.). Directing the better-financed Bush effort were former Secretary of State James Baker (Tom Wilkinson) and national council Benjamin Ginsberg (Bob Balaban).

Writer Danny Strong, formerly an actor in "Gilmore Girls" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," plays it straight down the middle. Here are the strategies of both camps and the dueling personalities of their leaders, particularly scrappy Baker. Here, too, are the exaggerated histrionics of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Over the top? Absolutely, but numerous factual accounts attest to her being every bit the dingbat Laura Dern makes her out to be.

With a presidential race looming, the timing for "Recount" couldn’t be better. Meanwhile, expect to see Spacey and Wilkinson in the hunt for Emmy noms for their work here.

Production: A Spring Creek/Mirage production in association with Trigger Street Prods. and Everyman Pictures. Cast: Kevin Spacey, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr. Laura Dern, John Hurt, Denis Leary, Bruce McGill, Tom Wilkinson. Executive producers: Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, Sydney Pollack, Jay Roach; Producer: Michael Hausman; Co-producer/writer: Danny Strong; Director: Jay Roach. Director of photography: Jim Denault; Production designer: Patti Podesta; Editor: Alan Baumgarten; Music: Dave Grusin; Casting: David Rubin, Richard Hinks;

"Recount" gives insiders' account of 2000 election
by Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

The new HBO movie "Recount" has more than numbers going for it.

Part drama, part comedy and part political thriller, "Recount" (premiering Sunday, 9 ET/PT) recalls the fallout from the controversial 2000 presidential race, hanging chads and all.

It's a timely reminder of what might have been, had the Supreme Court not blocked Al Gore's efforts to recount Florida's ballots, leaving the Democrat a few hundred votes short of potentially winning the state's 25 electoral votes. The decision essentially provided George W. Bush the slim margin of victory that propelled him to the White House.

"Recount" traces the confluence of election events, legal maneuvering, and political bickering that embroiled Democrats and Republicans for five weeks. Its timing gives it particular relevance with 2008's election race, in many ways defined by Bush's tenure.

"We're eight years into a presidency that's taken a direction we will be paying for and suffering from for a long time," says Kevin Spacey, who plays "Recount"'s Ron Klain, the Gore operative who led the Democrats' recount effort. "What's encouraging is that we find ourselves in a new election where the public is engaged, interested, and passionate."

Neither Bush nor Gore is prominently featured in "Recount". Instead, the film focuses on the behind-the-scenes, post-election fracas by both parties as they battle over voting irregularities ranging from hanging chads and local county miscounts to the 20,000 Floridians disqualified from voting after wrongly being categorized as convicted felons.

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who screened the film this week, says that despite a blue-state tilt, "Recount" adds up to a fun watch.

"It's a pretty good rendition of a seminal moment in American history, when we were sitting on pins and needles waiting for the election's outcome," Brinkley says.

Spacey, a longtime Democratic supporter, says he was drawn by Danny Strong's script. " I was enormously impressed with the material and how (Strong) made the characters quite human," the two-time Oscar winner says. "It's the details and the human element that makes 'Recount' entertaining. Even though we know how the election ends, it plays like a thriller. It's also funny."

Spacey's castmates include Tom Wilkinson as Bush adviser James Baker, Bob Balaban as Bush counsel Ben Ginsberg, Denis Leary as Gore national field director Michael Whouley, Ed Begley Jr. as Democratic attorney David Boies, John Hurt as Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and Laura Dern as the heavily made-up Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris.

Leary says Spacey, with whom he became friends when they worked on 1994's "The Ref", suggested he join the cast. "You know the story, but the edge-of-your-seat thing is how we get there," Leary says. "This isn't just a story of the process and how the system works. Ultimately, it's the street fight vs. the court fight, and who wants what and how they get it."

"Recount" is Strong's first produced screenplay. Best known for acting roles on "Gilmore Girls" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Strong talked with many of the principals, including Baker, Klain, Boies, and Christopher, for context and ideas. "At first, it was incredibly intimidating — I have no journalism experience and felt like I was being thrown into the fire," Strong says. Most were open to talking. Baker was "fantastic and totally candid" and particularly helpful with facts and tone, Strong says. Jeffrey Toobin, author of "Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election", served as a script consultant.

The low-profile Whouley declined to talk with Strong, although Leary eventually engineered a meeting with him through mutual acquaintances and a shared passion for the Boston Red Sox and Bruins.

"As soon as we sat down and talked for the first two hours, I couldn't take my eyes off him, he was that intense of a guy," Leary says. "He's very methodical and bright — a really smart guy."

quote:

Originally posted by Atypical:
It should be 05.25 in the title thread. "Recount" airs on HBO starting at 9 PM EST.

Thank you so much. I can't believe I did that. It's fixed now though! Thanks. God, I hate stupid typos! lol.

From the Palm Beach Post (where most of the movie takes place in...):
------------------------------------------------
Film on 2000 recount puts area officials, voters back in unflattering spotlight

By JOHN LANTIGUA
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 17, 2008

The HBO drama Recount begins with a close-up of a white piece of paper. Printed on it are these now fateful words:

"Official Ballot

General Election

Palm Beach County, Florida

Nov. 7, 2000"

The camera pulls back to frame two pages of presidential and vice presidential nominees. Those pages have come to be known as the ill-fated "butterfly ballot."

Three minutes into the film, a Democratic Party operative at Al Gore headquarters in Tennessee delivers these lines:

"We may have a problem in Palm Beach. A bunch of older voters believe they may have accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan by mistake."

The actor who speaks those words is two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey. A second actor says, "Palm Beach?" and then calls out to a campaign aide:

"Get me what's-her-name - Theresa LePore - on the phone."

LePore, then Palm Beach County elections supervisor and designer of the ballot, was to become famous worldwide - and, in some circles, infamous. She is now a movie character.

Thus begins the first attempt by filmmakers to depict one of the most - if not the most - contentious and still disputed political battle in U.S. history. And it was fought right in Florida, much of it in Palm Beach County.

The film will air at 9 p.m. Sunday, May 25.

Spacey plays Vice President Al Gore's former chief of staff Ron Klain, who leads the battle to have crucial, disputed votes recounted after the Gore camp loses the first tally.

Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson, of Michael Clayton fame, portrays former Secretary of State James Baker, who leads the forces of Republican George W. Bush against the recount.

'The essence of the truth'

Another Oscar nominee, Laura Dern, camps it up as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Included is Harris' over-the-top comparison of herself to Queen Esther.

"If I perish, I perish," Harris gushes melodramatically, vowing to wage war with the Democrats.

Others in the cast include Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr. and Denis Leary.

It is directed by Jay Roach, who achieved fame with the Austin Powers films. But there is very little comedic about Recount, except maybe a couple of those Harris moments.

The movie was shot in Tallahassee and Jacksonville. The only images on the screen recorded in Palm Beach County are in small bits of actual news footage, which are woven in.

Danny Strong's screenplay is written from Klain's point of view.

Very early in the movie, Klain learns that if Gore wins the election he will be given what he considers a relatively lowly job on the transition team. He declines that offer, obviously insulted and disappointed. He ends up having to lead the fight in Florida for Gore, a biting irony that Spacey plays well.

"The Klain story was so inherently dramatic that it had to be the point of view," Strong said.

The movie follows the state-level decisions that allow the recount to begin and then zeroes in on the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, which conducted the recount. The board was made up of LePore, County Commissioner Carol Roberts and County Judge Charles Burton.

The chronology is largely accurate, although some events are left out and others that occurred in other places are added. The viewer receives a thorough education on chads - both hanging and dimpled. The protests, the tensions, the infighting, the strategies, the media frenzy are all there.

Strong said the film "tries to give the essence of the truth."

But although scores of people were involved in the actual events and decisions, both in government and in the two warring campaigns, Strong had to limit the characters on the screen to a recognizable number, he said.

"For example, the three canvassing board members in Palm Beach represent all the canvassing board members involved in the recount in Miami-Dade and Broward," he said. "The whole movie is a condensed version of the events. And the dialogue was all created."

LePore agrees. She and Roberts sat next to each other at a premiere Wednesday night in Jacksonville.

"It's pure entertainment," LePore said. "A lot has been embellished."

But she said there are parts that are very accurate, including a death threat against her that arrives at the canvassing board.

"The death threats against me, the 24/7 security, the lawsuits, that was all true," she said. "And, to be honest, the actress playing me looked like me. In one scene when we (the canvassing board) were outside, she wore Ray-Bans like the ones I wore, and she had sweaters on, which is what I wore."

But one thing about the film irked her.

"They portrayed me as weak and teary, like I was about to cry any minute," LePore said. "And the actress playing me breaks down and cries publicly, which did not happen. I may have cried a little in the bathroom, but not in public."

LePore also feels Roberts didn't fare well in the casting department.

"The actress playing Carol looked like a chubbier, older, more made-up version of Raymond's mother," she said, referring to the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

Roberts didn't complain about the casting. She said she liked the film, although she found one part she called "fiction."

At one moment, a flier arrives at the board, accusing Roberts and Broward County Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger, who like Roberts is a Democrat, of being lesbian lovers.

"I didn't remember anything like that happening," Roberts said. "So I asked the screenwriter and he said, 'Oh, that showed up in Broward, but since not much else happened in Broward, we moved it to Palm Beach.'"

Roberts said she liked the way the movie portrays GOP operatives deliberately obstructing and slowing the recount. In the movie, it is on orders from Baker.

"Whether Baker ordered it or not, I don't know," she said, "but that's what really happened."

Burton, now a circuit judge, said he had not seen the movie.

Democrat takes exception

The latter half of the film tracks the battles in Tallahassee and then at the U.S. Supreme Court - the hard-fought victories and reversals for both parties, and the final resolution, when the recount is shut down for good and Bush is declared the winner.

One area where the movie has come under attack is its depiction of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher as a weak leader of the Democratic recount forces. Christopher and other people involved, including Baker, have said the characterization is false.

"Much of what the author has written about me is pure fiction," Christopher said.

Again, Strong defended his script. He said journalism done at the time and books written soon after the event support his portrayal of Christopher.

Christopher was "ready to concede very early on," Strong said.

Near the end of the movie, after the final Supreme Court ruling, Baker and Klain meet on an airport tarmac.

"Did the best man win?" asks Klain.

"You bet," Baker says.

"I hope you're right," Klain responds.

Of course, that question hangs in the air over the runway like a lead blimp.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_new...1a_recount_0518.html

From Entertainment Weekly:
------------------------------------------------
Recount
A-
--
MAKE IT RECOUNT HBO's retelling of the 2000 Bush-Gore election battle turns the hanging chad into gripping TV (Kevin Spacey)

By Gillian Flynn

Just when you're filled to the popping point with Election 2008 comes this cunning drama about Election 2000, which defies odds by actually making you crave more politics. HBO's Recount, about the battle between Democrats and Republicans for Florida — and thus, the presidency — is paced like a thriller from its first minutes, when the strange news arrives that the Florida vote count is wrong, and a panicked aide finds himself at one end of a long tunnel, desperately trying to flag down Al Gore as he's about to walk on stage to give his concession speech. Ah, the tension, the danger! Director Jay Roach (the Austin Powers trilogy) has clearly seen a few conspiracy thrillers, and Dave Grusin's tenterhooked score sets the anxious pace as the film cuts between Democrat and Republican camps for the next 35 days as they parse ballots all the way to the Supreme Court. As Gore's former chief of staff, Ron Klain, Kevin Spacey loses the smug laziness that has enveloped him the past half decade and snaps to, pulling along the drama with a crisp efficiency and just the right amount of smirkiness: ''The plural of chad is chad?'' he marvels.

With an extremely clever script by debut screenwriter Danny Strong, Recount introduces a landslide of facts with sweaty grace, intertwining scripted scenes with actual broadcast-news clips. Anytime a moment feels overblown — like the choreographed carnival of protesters outside the Florida Supreme Court recount proceeding — up flashes some vintage CNN to remind us that the atmosphere actually was that insane. (Remember the ''Surrender Gorethy'' airplane banner?) The perfect mimicry of these public events makes you want to swallow even the most Hollywood-perfect bits of dialogue. Did a capitulating Gore really tell Klain ''Even if I win, I can't win''? Maybe, maybe not, but the line has a certain truthiness — and particularly resonates in light of the internecine Clinton-Obama battle.

Speaking of Democrats, Recount may not be downright blue, but it's not as purply as it wants to appear. Despite its ''equal time'' approach, Recount is an underdog story, and thus a Democrat story. While George W. Bush, like Gore, is only vaguely glimpsed, the remaining Republican players here are coolly calculating — Tom Wilkinson's James Baker III, the Bush team quarterback — or they teeter on the edge of madness, like Laura Dern's Katherine Harris. With flaming lipstick and helmet hair, Dern nails the Florida secretary of state's looks, cadence, and carriage to a disturbing degree, and she runs with Harris' Cruella De Vil vibe: At one point, before a press conference, Dern morphs her face from that of a human being into Harris' crazy-cuckoo public mask, and the moment is absolutely chilling. Fair? Debatable, but like Recount, it's a gorgeous bit of political theater. A-

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20200518,00.html

I thought that this movie was so great! It's definetly a shoo-in at the emmys, and I hope it wins! Kevin Spacey is also a shoo-in! I thought Laura Dern was great as Katherine Harris! My only problem, MORE NEEDED TO BE WRITTEN FOR HER! If there was more written for Dern, then I think she could have won the supporting actress race by a landslide, but though she will get a nomination, her chances of winning might not be as big right now. Denis Leary was good, but the same for Dern, there needed more to be written for him. But, I think I would add him in, based solely on clever writing! "He's so tight, he eats m&ms with a fork and knife." Best line in the movie! I think Leary can get in based off of that line! Writing is a shoo-in, along with directing! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a MAJOR contender!

Grade: A-

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bocaboy7,

This was a superb film, simply put. Dern was drop dead amazing here, and she easily deserves to win the Emmy as of now, screentime issue aside. Spacey and Leary was equally superb, and both should be shoo-in's for nods; the picture itself will easily get Writing/Directing and TV Movie. This was increadibly taut and razor sharp, and by far the most entertaining political "thriller" I've seen in a while.

Grade: A-/A

RECOUNT
Grade: A

Scary to think of how Bush’s Republican machine used lies, corruption, and brute force to bring democracy to Iraq after using lies, corruption, and brute force to subvert democracy in their own country. I suppose it’s not possible to watch this film from an un-opinionated perspective, in the same way you can’t leave Iron Jawed Angels without believing that women have the right to vote. I suppose it’s not possible to watch it without hindsight either, after the eight-year cataclysm that has been the Bush presidency. I suppose it’s not possible to watch this without being moved to anger. It’s also not possible to not laugh or to leave uninformed.

But it is certainly possible, from where I sit at least, to applaud Recount as the best dramatization of American political upheaval since HBO’s own vastly underrated Iron Jawed, clear and persuasive about its subject matter, funny and exhilarating in its effect. Actor Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls), in his first produced screenplay, is as much a revelation as Dan Futterman’s Oscar-nominated Capote script. He and director Jay Roach, better known for Austin Powers and Meet the Parents and whose comic touch is a godsend with this material, create a film that moves with intensity and generates suspense even though we already know how it ends.

It features an excellent performance from Kevin Spacey, working with firebrand passion as Ron Klain, who attempts to win Florida for Al Gore. It features Tom Wilkinson in another standout supporting performance (he previously enlivened John Adams as Benjamin Franklin), this time as the scaly James Baker, unapologetic in his attempt to wrest the election from the Democrats by any means possible. And it features Laura Dern in a satire of Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris that goes beyond caricature into something scarier, sadder, and all the while funnier — she’s a witless political shill convinced that she’s the protector of democracy.

The exceptional casting extends to supporting roles for John Hurt, Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban, Bruce McGill, Jayne Atkinson, and Mitch Pileggi. The equally impressive editing is by Alan Baumgarten, almost seamlessly combining dramatized scenes with archive footage, developing a swift pace and maintaining clarity through murky waters (chads, hand recounts, lawsuits, and appeals). I say almost because of a few goofy Gore/Bush impersonators who call attention to the production’s artifice — but even that I’ll forgive when considering one of this year’s most impressive television films, and indeed one of the most impressive I’ve seen in any medium in 2008 thus far.

This had the pacing and tone of a really good West Wing episode (which I consider the ultimate compliment.)

Kudos to Jay Roach for making a film so entertaining, when by all rights, this could've been a drab court drama.

The cast is great, Spacey is an easy bet for a lead actor nomination. I'd have to say the standout performance here is Tom Wilkinson, who is just ruthless as James Baker.

People will be really on the fence about Laura Dern though. While there are already many people citing how Katherine Harris is quite similar to Dern's portrayal, it just felt like broad comedy. Like I mentioned above, this is like a great West Wing episode but its execution is a bit peculiar Harris is tossed in like an SNL character.

A B+ effort

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I thought that this was a good film overall, but aspects of it rang shallow, like an example of political theatre with no substantial examination of the human condition (something I'm also worried about with "W"). Maybe that comes from knowing what the outcome ended up being, and that so much detail had to go into setting this scene up from multiple levels, it became more history lesson than absorbing drama. There were times in the film when I actually thought that the Democrats could pull a last-minute save with the Supreme Court or some other tactic that Ron Klain could come up with, but then reality set in, and I became furious all over again like I did in 2000. I credit that to Danny Strong's biting and witty screenplay -- it's the best aspect of this film, and it manages to make something we all know the outcome of and somehow make it relevant all over again. Seeing them go through the electoral college results for Florida like that had my stomach in knots just like it did back then (and kinda sad to see the Big 3 in all of their glory again -- Dan Rather and his goofy one-liners, Tom Brokaw and his calming voice, and Peter Jennings just being awesome). This should shoot up to the top of the class for best writing in a miniseries/made for television film in September. This is also the best work that Jay Roach has directed. I especially liked the way that the archival news footage was dispersed into the film so effortlessly (and most of those CNN commentators are still there in this current election cycle).

For the Emmys, I could see either an across-the-board embracing of the film in multiple nominations (directing, writing, techs, acting, made for television film, etc.), or a lighter nominations tally and even fewer wins from election'd out voters. Kevin Spacey anchored the film well, and all of his acting habits that usually annoy the hell out of me were gone in this role. Tom Wilkinson looked like he was savoring the role as the villain of the piece as James Baker -- he's had a spectacular year with HBO with this and "John Adams". I can see why he went lead as not to split his votes in supporting for "John Adams", but I don't think he'll make lead for this role (I'd rather have seen him net two supporting nods if that's allowable). Denis Leary was great here as Michael Whouley -- I wouldn't mind seeing him nominated in supporting actor. Lots of character actors ("oh, that guy!") here were given nice screentime (re: automatic Best Casting Emmy nod) -- Jayne Atkinson, Bruce McGill, Ed Begley, Jr., Bruce Altman (no matter what role he does, he'll always be the lawyer guy to me from "Whitecaps" that played hardball with Tony and lost), Mitch Pileggi (Skinner!), Bob Babalan, and John Hurt (I did get a bit distracted by Hurt and Wilkinson playing Southerners and Mid-Westerners, since their Brit accents jumped here and there in places). I saved Laura Dern for last -- I think she'll get nominated either way, b/c her Katherine Harris is too notable for her not to get in, but I was hoping for some more depth and screentime for her. The point's made that she gets too caught up in her moment in the spotlight and all, and all of the garish makeup and hair was a great effect and true-to-life, but I was hoping for more of what made the woman tick and led to her decision-making, since she's the major female voice in this boys club piece.

Good film, well-made, thrilling and absorbing, but I was hoping for something more meaningful in places.

Grade for "Recount": B