Back to the Dimpled Chad
By Mick Farren
To watch a political drama on TV in which the story is simply told without any mendacious attempts at quasi-fairness or faux-balance is as refreshing as a breeze from a spring mountain, and this is exactly the case with HBO’s Recount. Recount is the story of the nightmare five weeks during which the ruthless James Baker (played by a close-to-Satanic Tom Wilkinson) combined with the near-insane Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (a majestic portrayal of psychotic vanity by the perfect Laura Dern), and the Supreme Court of the United States to steal the 2000 presidential election from Al Gore and initiate these eight long years of the George W. horrorshow. Facing off against these seemingly impossible odds are a bitterly desperate Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Gore’s fallen-from-favor Chief of Staff, and the loudly cursing Denis Leary as Michael Whouley, the Gore campaign’s national field director. The story is, of course, a forgone conclusion. We only have to look to the White House to know how it all came out, but writer Danny Strong and director Jay Roach are able to maintain a wholly plausible tension, and, as we go back to the nightmare of court battles over hanging chads and disputed Pat Buchanan votes, we can still suspend disbelief and believe the good guys might just win in the end, even when we know in our hearts and our recent history that it’s completely impossible.
HBO, Sun. at 9 p.m.
Published: 05/21/2008
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