The Movie Vampire

            TV movies are an interesting beast because they are fairly undignified but are consistently of higher quality than direct to video works.  While direct to video movies are usually just theatrical rejects or cheap ridiculous cash ins, works made for television do need to stand up to some level of quality.  Often these television works don’t live up to their theatrical big brothers, but occasionally a TV movie like “Duel” will come along that rivals everything in the local Cineplex.  One such project is airing now, but it’s not on T.V. it’s on HBO, a network that definitely lives up to its motto with this great project.

            “Recount,” tells the story about the disputed election in Florida during the 2000 presidential election, which ultimately decided the presidency in favor of George W. Bush.  The recount is shown from all sides and perspectives, but the central figure is probably Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey), a lawyer in charge of the recount committee who is determined to see that all the votes are counted.  Klain’s republican counterpart is James Baker (Tom Wilkinson) who is just as determined as Klain to see that his candidate wins the presidency.  Assisting Klain are a cynical democratic consultant named Michael Whouley (Denis Leary) and a veteran attorney who wants to maintain dignity rather then go all out for his candidate.  And of course what Florida recount would be complete without Katherine Harris (Laura Dern), the Bush Campaign head/Florida Election Official who so memorably abused her power in order to help Bush while looking like the bride of Frankenstien.

            Following the writer’s strike HBO was forced to push back their normal summer series like “Entourage” back to the fall and the network seems to be filling the void with a number of original movies and mini series.  A few months back subscribers were treated to the similarly star studded and mostly successful mini-series “John Addams.”  “Recount” is a work of much more recent history and it fits into a pattern of films depicting events that occurred within the last decade or so including Paul Greengrasses’ United 93 and Stephen Frear’s The Queen.

Public events like the Al Gore’s reversal of concession and the Supreme Court hearing appear to be meticulous recreations.  Behind the scene encounters seem to take a little more creative license, but are probably at least true in spirit to what occurred behind closed doors.  The film’s dialogue has probably been jazzed up a lot compared with the way the real Bush and Gore legal teams talked (especially Denis Leary’s character), this hurts the film’s authenticity to some degree, but that’s a worthwhile concession for increased audience clarity.

The actors here all seem to be having a real good time and they have the luxury of playing real people, which is a common acting challenge, but at the same time they don’t need to imitate legendary celebrities like Ray Charles or Queen Elizabeth.  Laura Dern is the one who has the biggest imitation burden as Katherine Harris was a memorably freakish woman and one of the more public figures in the whole affair.  Dern is very effective at reminding the audience of mannerisms and bizarre makeup of this disgusting harpy. 

John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, and Ed Bagley Jr. also effectively portray real people both in appearance and mannerism.  Kevin Spacey is at the center of the movie and is in many ways the character the audience is supposed to most closely identify with.  His performance is not extraordinary by any means, but it is perfectly competent and it effectively centers the movie.  Dennis Leary mostly just does his usual shtick here, but it works.  Leary injects a nice cynical eye to the democratic side of the whole affair, he has two great speeches toward the beginning and end and he often steals scenes.

The depiction of both sides seems to mostly be fair, but the democrats generally do end up looking more admirable given the events on display.  The democrats here are clearly seen as fighting for what they view as the correct outcome and the republicans mostly have the same motivations.  The facts however are largely biased toward the democrats especially given the final count that would come out months later, the rapid attempts to disenfranchise people, and the insider interference of Katherine Harris and other Florida officials like Jeb Bush.  With obstacles like this it isn’t a surprise that the Democrats come off like underdogs fighting for what they believe. 

Still the many faults of both parties are on display here. In many ways I think the film is something of a comment on some of the dangers of polarized party partisanship.  At every level of this ordeal going up to the supreme court, no one on either side seems able to be able to put their parties goals aside and simply try to see which side could get their candidate through by any means necessary.  Warren Christopher at least tries to have a fairer mindset from the beginning, but when faced with republican tactics to end the recount immediately the people around him needed to fight fire with fire and Christopher was eventually pushed out.

This is theatrical quality filmmaking but HBO is a good format for it as this story in many ways lacks a certain cinematic quality that one expects when paying to see something on a big screen.  This is a really fast paced procedural that shows what happened in Florida eight years ago with a good dose of wit.  Hitchcock once called drama “life without the boring parts.”  This movie is like a national event without the boring parts, and it’s a very good watch. 

***1/2