Bombshell

Starring: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Mark Duplass

Director: Jay Roach

Set in 2016, we follow Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), who is under fire for her comments posed to Donald Trump about his seeming hatred of women as he was vying to be the Republican Candidate running for President. Seasoned anchor Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) is tired of the rampant sexism in the workplace and is deciding whether to sue Fox News head Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). Meanwhile, newbie Kayla (Margot Robbie) has just been promoted to working with Bill O'Reilly with dreams of becoming an anchor herself. Each woman has had one or many uncomfortable interactions with Ailes and as women start to come forward, the women must decide between keeping their careers in tact or coming forward with their stories as well.

I have to applaud writer Charles Randolph and director Jay Roach for presenting the film with no apparent bias. Unlike last year's Vice, they are more concerned with telling the story, albeit with an admitted dramatic license, and not becoming overly preachy. The filmmakers try to get ahead of any controversy by admitting that events have been dramatized in order to make a more compelling film. However, unlike The Big Short, I don't feel like I learned anything I didn't already know about the situation. While it's a fairly short film, clocking in under two hours (yay!), I wasn't as compelled by the narrative as I could have been. Outside of the make up, which is used to great effect not only on Charlize but Lithgow as well, this is filmed in a rather routine way.

Speaking of Charlize, she is fantastic transforming into a spitting image of Megyn Kelly. It speaks to her acting ability that despite the transformation it is a largely unshowy role, unlike Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour which seemed to be screaming "give me all the awards!!" Her conflict about whether to come forward against Roger felt like a realistic inner conflict and drove the plot forward. Less successful in their portrayals, at least in my eyes, were Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie. Nicole does a good job, but her character doesn't really step out into the spotlight as much as Charlize's or Margot's. Even with Margot, I think because she is an amalgamation meant to represent all the women who came forward against Ailes, the movie doesn't quite know what to do with her. She’s great in the role but outside of a genuinely creepy scene with Ailes that actually shows what he does behind closed doors, she is not really a factor in the plot. I don’t think the movie shows her coming forward either, which doesn’t help.

While this is a fictionalized account of the Roger Ailes scandal, something the movie freely admits, it’s an important film nonetheless because it shows this is something women deal with on a daily basis. It’s not fake news that the world is disgusting and sexist and that powerful men use that power to influence people. They will then continue to use that power to silence people from ever doing anything about it. Like the movie says, people don’t believe it until it happens to them. We need movies like this to remind everyone and keep pushing people to fight for what’s right, even when the world doesn’t learn from its mistakes. So many women came forward, but as the text concluding the film says: Fox settled with the harassed women for a total of 50M. Ailes and O’Reilly, who were fired because of this, got 65M in severance. We still have a long way to go.

B