If you know me and know anything about this movie, you’ll likely–and correctly–guess that I enjoyed it. The movie is a wonderful, aptly timely, social commentary on bigotry, fear, and the risk of being quick to judge and quick to condemn.
The story follows the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo while he is blacklisted in Hollywood. The fear? Communism. The price to pay for having a different view of government? The ruin of your career. Of your family. And in some cases, the cost was life itself. The movie covers those things, and it does it well. It frames the tale from the side of those blacklisted, and the tale is chilling.
The cast works well together, with Brian Cranston in the lead as Trumbo. As with any biopic, you want a lead who reminds you of the focus of the film, and Cranston did a fine job here—something that can be seen toward the end of the film with vintage footage of the real Trumbo. But as good as that performance was, it did not quite seem to be up to what I expected of Cranston. Or maybe it’s that Walter White is too engrained in my mind when it comes to Cranston; this leads to a feel as if he overacts here–trying so hard to emulate Trumbo and not come across Walter-White’ish.
The supporting members make for a fantastic ensemble. It was interesting to see David James Elliott again (I’ll admit a strange affinity I had for JAG years ago), and he does do a great John Wayne. But goodness, what a displeasing person it turns out the Duke was.) Helen Mirran is stellar as Hedda Hopper. And, of course, any movie with Louis C.K. is one that I want to see. (cannot deny my crush on that ginger, after all. 😉 )
Not everyone will appreciate the movie. It shines a light on what I view as a dark side of our past, that side where we as a country were simply wrong in how we reacted to a situation. But that, to me, makes it an important movie. What a benefit if a few more people could learn through hindsight how much we might need to use caution in hate and bigotry overtly rooted in fear.