Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Rodrigo Amaro "Recount" takes us back to the 2000 controversial presidential election (Gore vs. Bush) with the numbers problem in Florida, something that hold the election results for a brief yet suffocating period with both Republican and Democrat parties fighting for the presidency. The main characters here are the personnel representing both candidates, the Democrat team led by Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey) supporting Al Gore, and claiming for the votes recount after a gigantic difference between what TV was showing and the numbers his staff got with another source; and the Republican are led by former Secretary of State James Baker (Tom Wilkinson) who are opposed to the recount and want the result of Bush's victory to be maintained. And there's Katherine Harris (Laura Dern) holding a kind of power she shouldn't really hold.We all know what happened, Bush won, there's no surprise in that scenario but the movie never at any moment failed to make us admired of all the events behind one of the most dramatic political decisions to ever take place. There's tension, there's conflict and there's excitement. Everything's here: the numbers, the problem with the chad's, the poorest people that weren't allowed to vote, the many stances of recounting the votes, procedure problems, the Supreme Court's decision, it's all here! Don't be fooled just because you already know what's going to happen, there's so many great things and it's so thrilling to see what happened that for one moment you can pretend you don't have a clue of what's to come.This is directed by Jay Roach, known primarily for his Austin Powers flicks, and it's quite a surprise to see his name associated with this serious theme and more than that, he didn't failed. He doesn't get intimidated by the stellar cast (other directors would be) and impress us by making us follow, for the most part, the cause that will be lost, the team that is not gonna win. Promising and winning strategies that failed but with plenty of lessons learned. His most recent achievement "Game Change" (again with HBO) follows closely the McCain/Palin campaign and the whole triumphant scheme behind another important election that turned out to be lost by the Republican. To the audience that sees as this being a boring film, here comes another serious political movie deep down in its gray and uninteresting areas, well, you're wrong. "Recount" can be and it is hilariously funny, warm, easy to follow, only problematic to viewers from nations whose election system works differently than the one current in U.S. (no matter how many times someone explain it to me, I'll never get it. I would love to make this part longer comparing to how do we vote here but it's better not to). To the viewers outside of America, I insist you to watch it despite all the problems you might have, there's rewarding moments of wisdom in the movie (Baker's speech on how he changed of political party after his wife's death is one of those great moments on film that are rarely made these days).As for the acting, this has some of the greatest ever filmed. Denis Leary, Bob Balaban, John Hurt, Adam LeFrevre, Marc Macaulay, Bruce McGill, Bruce Altman, Ed Begley Jr. and others are part of the great ensemble cast that composed both teams of "Recount". However, the three outstanding performers are Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern and Tom Wilkinson. Spacey is the magnet that makes everyone involved with such deep story, he's the one for whom we cheer (even if he's playing against the party you're support you're gonna like this man); Dern makes something really impressive with the character she plays, it's part characterization, part mockery but it's not something scandalous. It's funny in the right measure, very different from a comical sketch because there's emotional, insightful lines. Wilkinson isn't the one you root for but it's certainly the one from who you get the best lessons, the best way to overcome things, a wise character.Smart, humored, critical about the political process and its machine, true to the facts, "Recount" manages something almost impossible: to present surprises when they seemed completely inexistent or hard to find. For that and more it's a must-see film, that's a fact. 10/10

happipuppi13 My local library has done it again. Placed on it's shelf another really great movie I've never heard of. Pretty easy pick when I saw it was about the 2000 Presidential election. Like most i was watching that November night when all measure of political insanity broke out. I was videotaping that night and now (even though Gore "lost"),I wish I'd saved that tape.Most of us out there know the storyline and has been covered here. I can commend the creators very highly on this for bringing a very detailed & as truthful as possible telling of all that went wrong. A lot of what went wrong existed before the election even began.The cast here plays each singular role in a manner that makes you feel you are watching exactly what these people felt at that time. They never makes the person their portraying into a 2 dimensional cartoon. Some here feel the movie is leaning in favor of the Democrats as the good guys & the GOP the bad. What I saw was that Gore's supporters wanted to play fair as possible and the GOP well,they didn't. I'm not trying to say "all" republicans are like that but given what happened that night and up until Nov. 2008,no one should be surprised at how they are depicted here. I still feel the storytelling was as fair as possible to both parties and former candidatesI honestly did feel the sense of loss all over again,when (on the phone) Gore tells Kevin Spacey "I can't win." "Even if I win,I lose". The end of the film is an unfortunate reminder of what was to come next for the U.S. , but if you haven't seen this,I wont give it away. I will say there have been good made for TV movies but for some reason,HBO seems to make better ones. 10 stars,count 'em 10. {END}

sveknu This movie was totally unknown to me when I by coincidence discovered it because it aired on TV. (It's a TV movie after all). I think it deserves to be more well-known among people. American politics has always been of interest to me, and this was highly entertaining. I remember the mess, arguing and total chaos that was the Presidential election Florida recount, but I couldn't remember all the details. This movie takes you through everything that happened in a way that you don't want to stop watching. It's really entertaining, sometimes I think it's borders to comedy, but that's not a problem. In fact, the whole situation in 2000 was almost a comedy in itself. Before I watched this, I feared that it would have the typical liberal viewpoint that so many political movies have thus making them hard to watch. Luckily, I felt that it was quite neutral all the way through and managed to show the situation from both sides. That's a big plus. Also, the acting is great in this movie.

steve freeman I have been studying and writing about elections and election fraud for several years. I studied the 2000 Florida election in great detail, writing a chapter in my book, "Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count" (Seven Stories Press, 2006), on the subject: "Chapter 2. Florida sets the Stage in 2000." Recount dramatizes the count-the-ballots battle in Florida after the 2000 election. In my experience, reporting on events about which I am knowledgeable often barely resemble the reality because of errors, shortcuts and important omissions which seem inevitably to be part of the process. But I saw no errors or inaccuracies at all in Recount. Everything and everyone was portrayed consistent with my understanding of what happened and the actual behavior of the cast of characters. Moreover, they amazingly touch on every important point despite the standard length film time and story-line constraints. It's obvious that extraordinary effort went into researching what happened and crafting the story-lines. Finally, it's a momentous, high drama, tightly told and cut with many powerful scenes, including the final scene of (uncounted) ballots sitting in boxes in a warehouse. The acting is as good as it gets. Whether or not you think you already know what happened, this is a highly compelling film.