Bombshell

Synopsis: A fact-based story of the ousting of Fox News boss Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) on sexual harassment charges.

Whilst being thematically commendable director Jay Roach’s film has a couple of major drawbacks. One is that dramatically it doesn’t really get beyond being a chronological detailing of the facts of the matter and those facts aren’t particularly gripping. The other is that most Australians will not know who the lead characters are, meaning that not only will the story be of limited interest but as it is based on real people there is no way to judge how well the performances, by Theron and Kidman especially, re-create them,  

In what was a kind of pre-echo of the Harvey Weinstein/#metoo movement Bombshell depicts the entrenched sexism in corporate America and the media in particular as on the eve of Donald Trump’s election as President, Fox News’ host Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) finally decides that enough is enough and sues Fox News’ boss Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. Rising presenter Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), also experiencing an awakening consciousness begins her own campaign against Ailes.  A third character, the fictional Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) represents an amalgam of various Ailes victims.

Not that Ailes was Weinstein’s league. Indeed he was at his fall in July 2016, old (he was 76 at the time and died the following year), unwell and walking with a frame. His actions were less the behaviour of a bad man (it is pointed out that he had his good points) than someone who simply accepted the institutionalized values of male-dominated America, values which began to be attacked by 1970s feminists and which by the new millennium were thoroughly bankrupt.  

Ailes is a frankly repulsive figure and this brings us to another difficulty for the film and that is that it’s hard to feel much sympathy for the young, attractive but ambitious women like Kayla (in another life she might have been Tracy Flick, the young go-getter from Alexander Payne's Election,1999) who were willing to pander to his advances for purpose of self-advancement or in the case of Gretchen and Megyn, for so long turn a blind eye to behaviour which they regarded as reprehensible but maintained a compliant silence for which they were well-recompensed.

Theron, who was also a producer, is strong in the lead and will certainly be nominated for, and given the topic is likely to pick-up, a Best Actress Oscar although don't expect another Aileen Wuornos, Theron's very different wronged woman from Monster (2003). Kidman is typically effective in support as is Robbie. Between Theron and Kidman, rather ironically given the moral of the story, I couldn’t tell what was cosmetic surgery and what was make-up but certainly Lithgow’s prosthetic transformation is remarkable whilst his performance is outstanding. Malcolm McDowell, sporting an Australian accent, makes an amusing appearance as Rupert Murdoch.  

Writer Charles Randolph who did much better with another convoluted and potentially dry subject in The Big Short (2015) was perhaps overly constrained by a need to keep fairly close to the quite recent and well-known facts whilst Roach, best known for Meet The Parents (2000) and other mainstream comedies but who moved to more serious material with Trumbo in 2015, does little more than film the wordy text. The result is a film that whilst being thoroughgoing is hard to get enthused about.  

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