Political buffs, malcontents, and those who wish to stay home and avoid Indiana Jonesy-crazed throngs at the tenplex are in for a treat this weekend when HBO debuts Recount, their new film about the most absurd moment in American political history, that is, the election interruptus of 2000. Although the film was directed by Jay Roach, who directed the usually hit, often miss Austin Powers movies and the terrible Meet the Fokkers, Recount plays the events of those tumultuous weeks reasonably straight; of course, letting those events speak for themselves means there’s laughs a-plenty. It’s true that the depiction of Katherine Harris, Florida’s beleaguered secretary of state (wonderfully played by Laura Dern) does mercilessly expose her inadequacies, and it is also true that the Democrats’ Warren Christopher comes across (much to his annoyance) as a colossal wimp (Christopher, by the way, is played by British actor John Hurt, while the GOP’s wily, steely James Baker is played by British actor Tom Wilkinson, which only goes to show that in hindsight, the Democrats’ biggest mistake was in failing to choose as a leader someone who could have been portrayed by British actor Jason Statham. All in all, the film seems pretty fair: Democratic fans will be happy that the film shows that they never got a fair count, and Republican fans will be happy that the film shows that after every count that was taken, their guy won. The GOP’s problem is that their guy was then, and always will be, George W. Bush.
