"Recount": HBO revisits the days of hanging chads

May 12 update: Finally found the time to watch "Recount." It's great, absolutely a ton of fun, even if it is very said to relive the election heist of '00. There's great work all around by the cast but the standout perfs come from Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern, IMHO.

Can't wait to see "Recount," HBO's telepic about those 36 days in November and December 2000 when the decision on who would be the next president of the United States hinged on a few hanging chads.

The screener landed on my desk today and it just looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, even if living through that experience as a voter was anything but. Remember all the dueling press conferences where each side tried to shove as many American flags into the shot as possible? The posturing was laughable. But I submit that Gore's final-final concession speech after the Supremes weighed in was one of the classiest moments we've seen in politics in many years. (And Mr. Nobel Prize Winner has done all right for himself lately.)

Jay Roach is at the helm of this pic, and I'm hopeful that his comedic touch will enliven the pace and the characterizations of these, lawyers, policy wonks and political animals. The cast is first-rate, from Kevin Spacey as Al Gore's chief of staff Ron Klain, to Laura Dern of Katherine "pancake makeup" Harris to Ed Begley Jr. as legal eagle David Boies arguing for the Gore side. Denis Leary will surely bring all of his wiry intensity to the role of another key Gore operative, Michael Whouley. Bob Balaban, who's always good no matter what, plays a lawyer for the Bush-Cheney camp, Ben Ginsburg.

Both sides trotted out their elder statesmen for the fight: Tom Wilkinson plays James Baker III; John Hurt takes on Warren Christopher.

Sure, we know how it ends ("Mission accomplished!") but it ought to be interesting, in this intensely political election year, to revisit the bare-knuckle (brass knuckles?) campaigning that helped get us to the place we are today.