Recount (2008) (TV)

Director:

Jay Roach

Writer:

Danny Strong (written by)

Release Date:

25 May 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

The future of the nation was hanging by a chad.

Plot:

A chronicle of the weeks after the 2000 U.S. presidential election and the subsequent recounts in Florida. |

Plot Keywords:

Florida | Election | Presidential Election | F Word | Profanity

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 7 wins & 22 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Thur. Nov. 19

4:00 PM

HBO

Cast

Kevin Spacey	...	Ron Klain
Bob Balaban	...	Ben Ginsberg
Ed Begley Jr.	...	David Boies
Laura Dern	...	Katherine Harris
John Hurt	...	Warren Christopher
Denis Leary	...	Michael Whouley
Bruce McGill	...	Mac Stipanovich
Tom Wilkinson	...	James Baker
Bruce Altman	...	Mitchell Berger
Jayne Atkinson	...	Theresa LePore
Gary Basaraba	...	Clay Roberts
Derek Cecil	...	Jeremy Bash
Eve Gordon	...	Monica Klain
Marcia Jean Kurtz	...	Carol Roberts
Mitch Pileggi	...	Bill Daley

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:TV-MA | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Company:

Everyman Pictures

Trivia:

Laura Dern wore dark contact lenses to portray Katherine Harris.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the first scene, where James Baker is drinking Dr. Pepper, the can he is drinking from was not issued in 2000. However, later on in the movie, this error was corrected and he is drinking out of the older version of the can.

Quotes:

Michael Whouley: I love Warren Christopher, but I think the guys so tight he probably eats his M&Ms with a knife and fork.

Movie Connections:

Features Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002)

Soundtrack:

I Won't Back Down

Unusual and fairly effective election dramatisation

A sort of bastard cousin of The West Wing. The team behind this film is partisan - would you bother to go poring over the vagaries of the 2000 Presidential Election fiasco if you'd won? - but it makes a reasonable attempt to render facts.

The drama is populated by a large number of Hollywood's cream: great turns from Dern (playing Katherine Harris as a mad glamourpuss), Spacey, Leary, Hurt and an unlikely but ultimately convincingly greasy Tom Wilkinson. Bruce McGill, my personal benchmark for a worthwhile, echt-American drama also has a small role.

The candidates themselves are only ever seen face-on in archive footage, of which there is a smattering (Liebermann selling his man down the river, Dan Rather calling the election). The issue of disputed voting cards is helpfully animated. Like The West Wing, a lot of the legal and political arguments are more foggy and we rely on another scripting device, the coup de précis, which is often bitterly ironic.

Towards the end, Wilkinson's James Baker makes a short speech in which he says that 'the system worked - there were no tanks on the streets'. At face value he's right: the oft-stated desire for democracy-showcasing resolution has come good. Yet, at the end of a less than satisfactory decade in American political leadership, one cannot help watching the drama lamenting an election secured by sleight of hand and shake your head with regret. 6.5/10