Summary
Excellent performances lead a timely film that attempts to apply a centrist view to a topical issue but is still only concerned with surface fidelity.
To say that BOMBSHELL is a problematic film is an understatement. On the one hand, the timing of the release reflects the international wave of sexual harassment allegations that have shone a light on the unbalanced power dynamics in more than one industry. Yet the high profile of this release also lacks any of the nuance needed to get to the heart of this complex and systemic problem.
Director Jay Roach, working off a screenplay by Charles Randolph, begins the narrative in the lead-up to the 2016 Republican debate. Using the offices of Fox News as the backdrop, the stories of three women are told: news anchor Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), fellow anchor Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), and the up-and-coming Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie). As the Head of Fox News Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) comes under fire with sexual harassment suits, the focus shifts to how Fox deals with the situation as an organisational culture.
BOMBSHELL is a film that’s awfully concerned about surface-level fidelity. Yet this attempt at authenticity never extends to the characterisations of the people themselves. Apart from a few asides, Roach and Randolph never hold Kelly and Carlson to task for their complicity in creating a conversative news media that thrived on fearmongering, xenophobia and often homophobia. As Kelly’s character is told after her one-on-one Trump interview, “Honey, you absolved him.”
Perhaps this was a deliberate choice, as shining that particularly harsh light may have sidled up to the edge of victim blaming. Or maybe it’s simply the result of no women being present in the creative process. The conversations between the leads are functional and perfunctory, completely devoid of subtext. Rapidly changing tone from one scene to the next, with a fourth-wall breaking gimmick that is mostly forgotten after the intro, it’s another instance where the style trumps any substance. Even Ailes gets off far too lightly with this approach.
As such, BOMBSHELL is ultimately a showcase for its lead performers. Theron is uncanny as Kelly, not just physically resembling the news anchor but adopting her vocal cadences and mannerisms as well. It pulls short of caricature, and it’s a testament to her performance that we can see some depth lurking beneath the surface-level script. Yet for the most part it’s a game of spot-the-celebrity cameo, from Josh and Ben Lawson as the Murdoch brothers to Richard Kind as Rudy Giuliani!
While this film is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, perhaps its greatest impact is still in its star power. It remains unlikely that any of the Fox faithful will change their mind after watching this, or even see it if we’re being honest, but at least it becomes a very public conversation about the abuse of power and the dominant male paradigm. It will be interesting to see how history views this era when the retrospective films are made in the decades to come.
2019 | US | DIRECTOR: Jay Roach | WRITERS: Charles Randolph| CAST: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney | DISTRIBUTOR: Studio Canal (AUS)| RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 16 January 2020 (AUS)
