Review of Bombshell (2019) by Markhreviews — 24 Dec 2019

It’s nearly impossible to address a topic like sexual harassment while avoiding taking a point of view. By trying to maintain a fair and balanced perspective, “Bombshell” remains frustratingly superficial on a topic that deserves much deeper exploration.

This film examines the end of the Roger Ailes era at Fox News, a period during which anchor Gretchen Carlson sued the network for sexual harassment when she was fired. After the suit was announced, the film depicts on-air-personality Megyn Kelly’s internal debate on whether to go public about her own brushes with Ailes.

Director Jay Roach (“Trumbo,” the Austin Powers series) and Writer Charles Randolph (“The Big Short”) have created a film with an uneven, confusing tone. In “The Big Short,” Randolph’s script relied heavily on voiceovers, actors speaking directly to the camera and excellent use of humor (Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explaining sub-prime mortgages is one of the funniest vignettes of the past few years). Here, deploying the same techniques just seems out of place - dressing an actor to look like Geraldo Rivera is guaranteed to cause a brief smile, but it’s a cheap laugh that’s simply distracting. When addressing a subject like sexual harassment, so weighted with profound personal emotional cost, the superficial jokes and visual humor just seem painfully out of place.

The core cast contributes almost entirely to whatever success the film does achieve. As central character Megyn Kelly, Charlize Theron (with the help of facial prostheses) does an eerie imitation of her real-life counterpart’s appearance, gait and style of speaking. As Gretchen Carlson, Nicole Kidman relies less on visual similarity but still effectively conveys the essence of her character. As Kayla, who represents a composite of real-life female employees at Fox, Margot Robbie is compelling as she struggles with the compromises she’s willing to make to “move to the head of the line” and become an on-air reporter. Robbie offers the most powerful scene of the film as she second-guesses with considerable anguish the choices she’s made. John Lithgow (as Ailes) is powerfully effective as a self-absorbed bully.

The creative team has an amazing supporting cast at its disposal - Kate McKinnon as a Fox employee who’s a closeted gay Democrat, Allison Janney, Alice Eve, Rob Delaney, Richard Kind (Rudy Giuliani) and Mark Duplass, among others. It’s no small irony that two males, Delaney and Duplass, are the most sympathetic, thoughtful and appealing people in the film.

“Bombshell” shows several major flaws and raises several major questions. First, the screenplay totally fails to explore how, if at all, the inward-looking culture at Fox New contributed uniquely to an environment where serial sexual harassment could thrive. Instead, the script settles for portraying facts from the public record with no real attempt at context or interpretation. Second, the central characters are generally unsympathetic. Megyn Kelly, in particular, appears so driven by her own ambition that she seems oblivious to the situations of women around her. Her early comment “I’m not a feminist. I’m a lawyer.” offers only the laziest of explanations. Third, there is no serious exploration of why women, informally, didn’t help other women avoid Ailes’ predations. For me, one of the most intriguing but inscrutable characters in the film is Holland Taylor (she was Charlie Sheen’s mother on “Two and a Half Men,” more notably Ann Richards in the one-woman-show “Ann” on Broadway) in a totally uncredited role. In multiple scenes, you see Taylor smiling knowingly as she ushers the latest young woman in a short skirt into Ailes’ inner sanctum, fully aware of what is in store once the door closes and locks. Finally, totally separate from the Fox News context, is this bland approach to harassment what’s always going to happen when the #MeToo movement is written, directed and packaged by men?

If you want a deeper understanding of Roger Ailes and his legacy, read the carefully-documented “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” by Gabriel Sherman. “Bombshell,” on the other hand, is a superficial glossing-over of an essential topic and an insular culture that deserve a much more thorough examination.