Review of Vice (2018) by Ajgo85 — 27 Feb 2019

“I want you to be my Vice.”.

Comedic writer-director Adam McKay tries, and fails, to bring the same energy and insight from his Oscar nominated examination of the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short, to the most notorious vice president since Aaron Burr. Vice is the story of the rise to power of Dick Cheney and how he changed the executive branch’s use of power forever and for the worse. The film opens with a title card informing the audience that this is an attempt to tell the story of the most secretive figure in recent American political history which is a difficult thing to try. It’s not a good sign when before the movie even begins it apologizes for itself.

Christian Bale plays Dick Cheney and we see him first as an aimless drunk in Wyoming in the 1960’s that, spurred on by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams), cleans up his act and becomes the right-hand man of Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) during the Nixon and Ford presidencies. Watching him enjoy his quiet accumulation of power and the satisfaction and status it brings during the 70’s and 80’s is the most interesting segment of the movie. Once the film hits the W. Bush years when Cheney acted behind the scenes to increase his own personal power and wealth Vice should hit its stride, but instead it goes on autopilot and plays like a tired collection of Cheney’s greatest hits. Vice is very angry at Dick Cheney and condemns him plenty for his actions but that is like picking low hanging, blatantly obvious fruit.

Christian Bale is great as Dick Cheney. The strength of his performance is, naturally, from his skills and talent as an actor, not just from the makeup he is under and the weight he gained for the role. He speaks with that low growl I remember so well from the W. Bush years and imitates perfectly the small laugh and smile Cheney would sometimes let slip. Cheney was not much of a public speaker or campaigner so his wife Lynne steps up and rallies people to her husband’s cause. This is where Amy Adams gets to step out from the bland role of “wife of a biopic subject” to be an active player and interesting character. Bale is nominated for Best Actor and that is no surprise. Amy Adams has earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but she played essentially the same character, and played her better, in The Master. Sam Rockwell, in full goofball mode, plays George W. Bush and though he's barely in the movie, Rockwell has picked up a Supporting Actor nomination. The life of Cheney is narrated by Jesse Plemons playing an average American and Iraq War veteran who says he’s related to Dick Cheney... in a way. When we find out how he’s related to Cheney it causes cringes and eye rolls. In The Big Short McKay used a hyperactive and self-aware filmmaking style to excite and engage the audience about a pretty boring and convoluted subject: the stock market and investment banking. He used cameos from stars like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain complex financial ideas and practices using clever and easy to understand metaphors. There is nothing complicated about how Cheney grows and abuses power. He asks a lawyer if what he wants to do is okay. The lawyer says yes. There’s nothing hard to follow there but McKay has the narrator hold our hands through it anyway.

Cheney’s final actions in the movie are meant to play like a final heartless betrayal signifying that he is beyond all hope of redemption, but Vice never presented him as someone with anywhere to fall from. That would only happen with a movie that attempted insight into its subject’s emotions and motivations and even dared us to sympathize with the unlikeable main character. In Nixon, Oliver Stone built up audience sympathies for Nixon and then let him squander and betray those sympathies making his fall all the more tragic even though you rooted for him to fail. With Nixon, Stone posed the question: What does it profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul? (this Bible quote actually appears at the beginning of that film). In Vice, McKay forgot to ask any questions, attempt any insight, or speculate on motivations. This movie has only one message: this Dick Cheney is one bad dude. If you were born before the year 2000, you don’t need a movie to tell you that.