OK, we know the outcome, but HBO's “Recount” still a thriller. In the opening minutes of “Recount,” HBO's wickedly smart movie about the 2000 presidential election, Vice President Al Gore is seen walking down a long tunnel, preparing to give his concession speech to the nation. Meanwhile, a frantic campaign aide, limping badly with a bum knee, desperately attempts to get Gore's attention before the vice president officially ends his bid to become the country's 43rd president. “There's a problem,” the campaign aide shouts, “with the numbers in Florida.” And that problem turned out to be one of historic proportions. As we all know by now, voting irregularities in Florida - specifically in Palm Beach County - led to an epic 36-day battle for the presidency between Gore and George W. Bush that went all the way to the Supreme Court, gave every late-night talk show host a treasure trove of material and turned the Sunshine State into a national joke. “Recount,” (Sunday, 9 p.m. on HBO) details those insane 36 days and plays like a briskly paced, nail-biting thriller. We may know the outcome (spoiler alert: Gore lost!), but that doesn't diminish the tension. It helps that the movie, filmed in Tallahassee and Jacksonville and shot documentary-style like “The Office,” is blessed with a first-rate cast, a few of whom should be remembered come Emmy time. As Gore's former chief of staff Ron Klain, Kevin Spacey is in fine form as the man charged with leading the vice president's legal team. Like the rest of us, Klain received a crash-course education on a small piece of paper called a chad. “The plural of chad is chad?” a befuddled Klain says at one point. There's even a clever, CSI-inspired scene that actually shows how a hanging chad is pushed back into the hole, making it seem as if the ballot had never been punched. Meanwhile, Tom Wilkerson devours the scenery as former Secretary of State James Baker III, who's portrayed as a steely-eyed, Machiavellian tactician who relished the “street fight” for the presidency. “We can sit here drinking tea and discuss the virtues of Federalism, or we can start throwing punches,” Baker barks to his staff at one of many Republican strategy meetings. And Laura Dern gets The Loopy Performance of the Year award as Katherine Harris, Florida's much-maligned (and sometimes loopy) Secretary of State. Harris, who lorded over the tortuous recount process, probably won't be too happy with Dern's kooky performance, since she comes off as a clueless and mostly dumb woman who wears more makeup than the late Tammy Faye. (Harris reportedly refused to speak with Dern about the role.) “Recount” also plays so well because Danny Strong's clever script is infused with sharp humor and doesn't take the weighty subject matter that seriously all the time. Sure, the fight between Gore and Bush was a monumentally important one, but how could you not laugh at some of the incredible circumstances surrounding it. In one hilarious scene, Klain asks Gore's foul-mouthed national field director (Denis Leary) how hard could it be to punch a paper ballot. “It's pretty (bleeping) hard when you're eighty something years old, you're arthritic and you're blind as a (bleeping) bat,” the national field director says. “Unfortunately for us, blind (bleeping) bats tend to vote Democratic.” And you should cast your vote for “Recount.” - Cox News Service __
