BOMBSHELL REVIEW
Starring: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie
Directed By: Jay Roach (Meet the Parents/Austin Powers Trilogy)
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes
In July of 2016, FOX News Host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against Roger Ailes.What followed was a number of women telling a similar story, including prime time anchor Megyn Kelly.That lead to the ousting of the FOX News President. Ailes died 11 months after the suit was filed.
Regardless of what side of the political fence you reside on, I think we can at least agree in principal that Roger Ailes saw a hole in the media landscape and filled it.He had a plan and executed it to a rousing success.You can be a success in public and a monster behind closed doors.It isn’t one or the other.
Bombshell tells the story of Gretchen Carlson filing her lawsuit against Ailes and the conflicted journey Megyn Kelly went on before admitting it happened to her too.Charlize Theron gives a terrific performance as Megyn Kelly.One hundred percent disappearing into the role.I couldn’t tell it was her.I don’t think she’ll win any Best Actress awards for the role, but I think it might have been my favorite performance from a lead actress this year.She’s incredible.John Lithgow is also exhilarating as Roger Ailes.A lot of makeup was used for the role, but he gets to bloviate on screen for nearly two hours.
Of course, your approval of this movie will only go so far as who you believe…Gretchen Carlson or Roger Ailes?Bombshell doesn’t necessarily denigrate FOX News or conservative-ism.But it does lay out the things we all know FOX News does.Gorgeous women reading the news.A lot of wide shots showing an anchor’s legs.The little things FOX does are attacked, not the big stuff.Roger Ailes is the foil here.Not Republicans.
Margot Robbie plays a fictional producer new at FOX News.She is an amalgamation of everyone’s story of how Ailes treated them and harassed them.Her story is where the movie begins to go a little off the rails.We begin to see the movie’s tone be a problem whenever we spend time with Margot Robbie.There’s a weird string of scenes where the movie seems to playing as a comedy in the midst of this dramatic legal slash corruption movie.It proves that maybe the director of Meet the Parents and the Austin Powers trilogy wasn’t the best voice of the first major Me Too movie.
As for me, I tend to believe most women.Or at least hear them out.So, yeah, I find it believable that Roger Ailes was a closeted monster that needed to be outed.I enjoyed the movie for the most part aside from the odd shifts in tone from time to time.
A second major flaw of Bombshell is that it wasn’t able to talk with Gretchen Carlson or Megyn Kelly for the film.They signed NDAs that exclude them from telling their story.So, I think while being the FIRST Me Too movie has value, Bombshell could have waited until Carlson and Kelly could have contributed in telling their own stories.But you have Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, and Margot Robbie all signed on, I understand wanting to pull that trigger.
On a scale of “See It/Stream It/Skip It” – Stream It – It doesn’t go any deeper than the articles you’ve already read.But the performances are good enough to warrant a watch at somepoint.
If you liked 9 to 5, Erin Brockovich, or Network you might enjoy Bombshell.
3 out of 5 stars for Bombshell.A conflicted movie with amazing performances. Theron & Lithgow are highlights, but there are definite lowlights in a movie confused on which tone to take. I wanted a deeper dive than I was given, but that in no way lessens the impact.