Starring Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Denis Leary, and Tom Wilkinson
I liked this movie, but I don’t really think I was necessarily ready for it. I know the events took place nearly 8 years ago now, but watching this made me realize that for me, those wounds are still just too raw. It will be a long time before I stop wondering how different things might be now if the events of those few weeks went the other way.
I probably should have just realized before watching it that I’d have a hard time. I still can’t watch the parts in Fahrenheit 9/11 where he talks about the Florida recount without getting choked up. I also have a difficult time watching An Inconvenient Truth, for a variety of reasons, but one of them is my constant thought of “Oh man I feel bad for Al Gore. I feel bad for us that he didn’t win.”
Knowing all this, I probably should have waited at least another year before watching the movie. And depending on the results of this upcoming election in November, I should have waited another 4 or 8 more years. But alas, I didn’t wait, and came close to crying at several points during the film. Seeing something like this makes me glad sometimes that I’m not an actor, because I don’t know how I could have made it through filming.
That all being said, the movie is well worth watching. I actually wish this was a real movie release instead of something that came out on HBO, because I feel it deserves the biggest audience possible. We all need a reminder of what is truly at stake.
The performances were all fantastic as well. I hope Laura Dern gets some kind of acknowledgement during awards season because she almost made me feel bad for Katherine Harris, who really appears to be the only one who hasn’t gone on to super great things after that election. Or maybe I just haven’t heard about it, and I don’t really want to research her. I know she had that failed run for another position (was it senate? I don’t remember).
It was also written by Danny Strong of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. I adored him as Jonathan on the show and am happy to see him doing things again.
My Rating: 4.5/5
