Okay, this was kind of a TV special, but it was feature length, had a host of great actors (and not just names, these guys really are good - Kevin Spacey; John Hurt; Tom Wilkinson; Laura Dern; Dennis Leary; Ed Begley Jr. (not to mention the likes of Bob Balaban) - all, I think, beloved by the authors of this site) and highly appropriate given the recent content of my colleague's posts and the upcoming American presidential election. And I watched it last night so it's timely.
With election fever hitting America (and this side of the channel) ahead of next month's tight presidential election, More4 have been screening a host of programmes/exposes etc. on American politics. This is perhaps the highlight - a film recounting the tense days and months following the flawed Florida count in the 2000 election between Gore and Bush, as both sides scrapped to have various votes recounted or not recounted.
The story is familiar and the drama of the piece surrounding it is suitably gripping - all of it washed in nice, austere, filters reminiscent of a number of political films and TV shows. However, really and truly, this is a character piece, driven dynamically by a host of superb performances. I genuinely don't know who was my highlight - Spacey's driven and idealistic democratic lawyer; Hurt's contrasting, weather beaten, downtrodden, highflyer who plays as though he has the weight of Washington, if not the world, on his shoulders; Leary's charismatic, flamboyant, Gore-ite, always at Spacey's side; Dern's superb Katharine Harris (the secretary of state who held ultimate sway over this election in Flordia), who looks perfectly like a cat caught in the headlights of a car she mistakenly believed to be the bright lights of fame, fortune and power heading her way; or Wilkinson's sharp republican, Tom Baker, who might have switched from being a democrat but has lost little of his pathos or humanity in doing so. Wilkinson probably has - towards the end - the best scene, but the consistently great moments are provided whenever Spacey and Leary are together on screen, reminding the audience just what a talent Denis Leary is and causing us to wonder what has happened to him. In short, the cast was brilliantly selected and all seem passionate, interested and involved in what they are doing - and that, ultimately, is bringing an important political story back to the popular imagination without being preachy.
Yes, there is sympathy for the democratic cause, but it is not all cut and dry and the republicans score punches too. It is, ultimately, like in the politics it reflects, down to the viewer to interpret as she sees fit - this is never clearer than in the final scene where row upon row upon row of stored ballot boxes from the Florida election stand stoically before you. Somewhere in there, you are left thinking, the final truth lies, though we are unlikely to ever know what it is. The film asks serious questions of the American political process (without ever saying, flatly, "the result would have been different"), particularly about disenfranchisement, and has wider matters in its sight as well - shouldn't America get its own house in order before blindly bestowing "democracy" on the rest of the world? A very interesting and thought provoking film well worthy of anyone's time, especially if, a., they are interested in politics and the political process and, b., if they just love to watch great actors doing a great job.
B+
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