Caffeinated Clint
Like the chubby kid left to be a final pick on footy team-selection day, it’s gonna probably be hard going for Adam McKay’s newest.
If a fictional film like “Star Wars : The Last Jedi” can divide fans, because of mixed takes on whether or not a legendary character was handled correctly and respectfully, imagine the 140 characters some – including a large allotment of critics – will be using up on a film about a real life person, in this case former Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney, who may or may not have acted or behaved in the exact manner the film portrays. Twitter is gonna need some extra cooler jets when this thing hits.
So how does one judge a film like that? On its artistic merits alone? Do you try and separate truth from fiction and just enjoy what’s at hand? Do you simply leave your political beliefs at the door and invest yourself in an entertaining story? The answer may lie in your opinion of Oliver Stone’s “JFK” or how many times you’ve read Machiavelli.
It’s going to be different for every viewer, but one thing’s for sure, there’s no denying “Vice” is an ambitious and imaginatively-structured film. Much like his housing crisis drama, which was littered with stars and seemingly edited by Winona Ryder’s character from “Reality Bites”, Adam McKay’s expose on the 46th Vice President of the United States is primarily concerned in telling its story with as many clever cuts and cameos as possible, so that at no time does it start to resemble the weighty, slightly more niche period piece it might’ve otherwise been. So if you like some fizz with your facts… drink up!
The film retraces the steps of former VP ‘Dick’ Cheney who began as an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider but ultimately stepped into a position that offered him immense power. As Vice President to George W. Bush, Cheney was able to reshape the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.
With clever narration (it’s a spoiler to say any more, really), a hilarious mid-movie sequence that tricks the audience into believing the film is ending, and some entertaining, sometimes loud turns (particularly from Sam Rockwell, who is dynamite as George W.Bush), McKay seems intent on telling the tale in as energetic and entertaining a fashion as possible.
On that level, the film is a success.
Performance-wise, the all-star cast are as solid as the walls at Pennsylvania Avenue, with an unrecognizable Christian Bale disappearing into the role of the odious and seemingly merciless politico, and Amy Adams, always a delight, as equally ambitious and Lady Macbeth-like as Lynne Cheney.
Along with Rockwell’s fun and faultless turn as Bush, there’s also top turns from the likes of the versatile Steve Carell as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry as National Security Advisor Colin Powell, and Justin Kirk as adviser Scooter Libby.
The script, penned by McKay, is where folks will likely come to fisticuffs over – depending or not on whether they believe Cheney was given a fair shake here. The thing has been laced together as a dark comedy as opposed to serious Stone-structured political drama. To be fair, ‘Dick’ is played as almost Scrooge-like by Bale, with his menacing determination and clear absence of empathy, so it almost makes sense to go that route.
As the title card to the film tells us, little is known about Dick Cheney and that’s why, for a large part of the film, McKay was forced to resort to extrapolation and guesswork to fill in gaps. In one clever moment, an entire conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Cheney is told in Shakespearean verse.
Like his previous film, McKay’s Cheney biopic is less concerned with precision and palms than it seems to be reveling in the filmmaker’s traditional caustic jocularity and sanctimoniousness. And that, coupled with whatever pin you wore on Election Day, will help decide whether the movie is for you.
