An Entertaining, Thought-Provoking Docudrama With a Fine Cast
Kevin Spacey, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern give excellent performances in Recount, an engrossing docudrama about the 2000 American presidential election that Al Gore lost to George W. Bush. The movie originally aired on HBO on May 25, 2008.
The screenplay takes a clever approach to the story by telling it mostly from the point of view of the losers, that is, the Democrats. This version of the tale is an underdog story, focusing on a Gore campaign worker named Ron Klain who is unknown to the general public. As played by Kevin Spacey, Klain is an Everyman fighting for what he believes is right. He and the other Democrats are portrayed as being earnest, but on the bland side.
On the other hand, the two main Republicans are depicted as colorful. Tom Wilkinson is splendid as James Baker, who led the effort to get Bush declared the winner in Florida. Here he's portrayed as an iron fist inside a velvet glove. As Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Laura Dern gives a flashy performance that Harris' supporters would probably describe as caricature, but it certainly makes the movie more enjoyable for most of the viewers.
The film begins on Election Day and traces the wrangling over the hotly contested results for the next 36 days. The primary setting is Tallahassee, the state capital, but some sequences take place elsewhere, such as those showing harried election officials in Palm Beach recounting ballots in a circus-like atmosphere. The interest lies mainly in the accumulation of many small, but well-chosen details.
DVD Bonus Materials
If you like Recount, you'll want to listen to the feature-length audio commentary by director Jay Roach and screenwriter Danny Strong. Roach says the film has a hundred speaking parts and was shot mostly in Jacksonville. Strong claims to have interviewed all the important people portrayed in the movie except Katherine Harris, who wouldn't talk to him. He says his information about her comes mostly from Mac ("the Knife") Stipanovich (played by Bruce McGill), the Republican lobbyist sent by Baker to act as liaison with her. The filmmakers state that their main message is this: after any extremely close election, the votes should always be recounted as accurately as possible.
The most interesting of the video extras on the DVD is lead actor Kevin Spacey's seven-minute interview of the real-life Ron Klain, former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore from 1995 to 1999 and later general counsel of the Gore Recount Committee in Florida. Although the movie makes Warren Christopher (played by John Hurt) look wimpy, Klain praises Christopher and says that the exigencies of compressing 36 days of real life into a 110-minute film means that a lot of nuances will be lost.
There's also a five-minute interview by actor Bob Balaban of the man he portrays in the movie, Ben Ginsberg, Chief Counsel for the Bush Campaign. It's amazing how well Balaban captures Ginsberg in the film.
Finally, there's "The True Inside Story of the 2000 Presidential Election," a nine-minute promotional piece in which Recount's cast and crew work to convince the viewer of the movie's accuracy.
DVD Details
Below I have listed all the details for the DVD containing Recount.
Release Date: August 19, 2008
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes
Rating: TV-MA
Widescreen (16:9), Color
English 5.1
Spanish 2.0
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director and Screenwriter
The True Inside Story of the 2000 Presidential Election (9 min.)
A Conversation Between Kevin Spacey and the Real Ron Klain (7 min.)
A Conversation Between Bob Balaban and the Real Ben Ginsberg (5 min.)
