Review of Trumbo (2015) by Blake P — 18 Apr 2016

The Hollywood blacklist of the 1940s and '50s is an abomination most film fans try to avoid speaking of - it's too aggravating to discuss with a level head. During its peak, it saw scores of writers, actors, and directors assuredly banished from expressing their talents on the silver screen due to supposed Communist sympathies. Some were Communists (but, contrary to Joseph McCarthy's rhetoric, wished no threat upon the United States), and others were simply ostracized for suspected affiliation. Careers were torn apart and lives were sometimes destroyed; fear, after all, is a powerful thing. So it's an embarrassment that mere speculation was enough to effectively tarnish the existences of others.

Last year's "Trumbo," written by John McNamara and directed by Jay Roach, is one of the few films to address the atrocious era with an educational (but simplistically entertaining) foundation. Granted, it's perhaps too glossy to fully realize just how awful the time was for those blacklisted - all victims are painted as slight saints, and we're never given a true idea of the scope of those preyed upon - but it is, nonetheless, a well-acted biopic whose historic value is just as noticeable as its escapist worth.

Its central figure, of course, is Dalton Trumbo, a neurotic genius who was among the finest screenwriters of all time. The man behind such remarkable works as "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944), "Roman Holiday" (1953), and "Spartacus" (1960), he was, unfortunately (and famously), a member of The Hollywood Ten, a group of writers who received jail time for refusing to testify for the House of Un-American Activities Committee. Trumbo was a member of the Communist party from 1943 to 1948, and the blacklist was certainly a curveball that struck his prolific career.

The film follows his life from the beginning of the blacklist (around 1947) to its end (in 1960), and much of it plays out like a biography (or Wikipedia page) with a beating, cinematic heart. It captures his loving but unsteady relationship with his family (his wife, played by Diane Lane, is impressively patient, and his daughter [Elle Fanning] is a plucky liberal who hates his self-centeredness), his volatile connections with Tinsel Town heavyweights (a Helen Mirren portrayed Hedda Hopper a fitting example), and his touching affiliations with other member of the blacklist.

It's the spilling of well-known history, though, that tickles us most. It's one thing to read about his winning an Oscar for "Roman Holiday" under a pseudonym, about his manic output for B-movies during his exile, about his comeback after penning "Spartacus" and "Exodus." But to see such events unfold in the form of the everyday is fascinating; cinephiles will especially be enthusiastic. Exciting, too, are the appearances by historical figures like John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Otto Preminger.

But while "Trumbo" is breezy and effortlessly engaging, as most biopics are, it never quite jumps off the screen, which is not so unusual in the biographical movie genre. It frequently plays as if it were jumping from point A to point B, more concerned with pushing its plot forward than getting to know its characters on a deeper level than superficial figurine status. Understandable - it has to cram thirteen years worth of history in two hours - yet still vaguely stagey. Regardless, Cranston, as Trumbo, is incomparable, his supporting ensemble similarly well-cast.