October 17, 2008
Recount
Reviewer: Dylan de Thomas
Rating (out of 5): ***½
With W in theaters this weekend, the last face-to-face matchup of McCain and Obama in the rear view mirror behind us and Election Day less than three weeks ahead, there are few films as timely at this juncture as Jay Roach's terrific, peppy Recount.
By different measures, it's a contemporaneous horror film that if you think about too much, will give you screaming nightmares, yet another terrific HBO Films docudrama, and easily Kevin Spacey's best starring vehicle since American Beauty.
Recount is the story of the contentious end of the presidential election in 2000 told from the trenches of both Vice President Gore's and then-Governor Bush's post-election campaign headquarters in Florida. There's the expected numbers of hanging/dimpled/pregnant chads, the in-over-her-head Katherine Harris played with impressive self-possession by Laura Dern, and the same unbelievably depressing conclusion as in real life.
Strong performances abound in this thought-provoking and entertaining film, starting with Spacey, who does subtle, modest work that hasn't been seen from him in quite awhile. John Hurt is also a spot-on standout in a terrifically frustrated turn as Warren Christopher and the unparalleled Tom Wilkinson steals the show as the savvy GOP veteran, James Baker.
It's a nice refresher in the domino-like parade of mistakes made in the '00 campaign - much like the underseen … So Goes the Nation is for the next - and, one hopes, a one-of-a-kind event the country will never see again.
An excellent reading companion for Recount is Jeffery Toobin's The Nine for more Bush v. Gore depressing deliciousness.
Don't forget to vote on November 4. Presumably it will count this time.
Posted by cphillips at October 17, 2008 10:41 AM
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