Bush vs. Gore, Take 2

The issue of fairness was paramount to Dern. Harris wouldn't speak to her about the film (or to NEWSWEEK), so she prepared by reading Harris's book "Center of the Storm," studying press conferences and reading an interview conducted with Harris by screenwriter Danny Strong. She asked the film's director, Jay Roach, to let her have three takes of every scene—one over the top, one subtle, one in between—to give Roach options in the editing room. "[Harris] presented herself in this one way, but she couldn't have been that all of the time," she says. "I wanted to give him the choice to show different sides of her."

There are, of course, different sides to all the characters. "Recount" muddles the source of responsibility, taking a partisan conflict and showing how it was, in fact, a much more complex series of maneuvers and miscalculations on both sides. It won't make viewers want to stop pointing fingers; it will make them wish they had more of them to point.

© 2008