Similar
in tone to his Oscar winner, The Big
Short, and purportedly based on real
incidents, Vice is director/writer
Adam McKay’s version of the remarkable story of Dick Cheney, who, despite
major health concerns and personal setbacks,
ascends to the highest levels of government and becomes perhaps the most powerful Vice President
ever.
Opening
in 1963, young Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) is a hard drinking, Yale reject who,
with a good push from his wife Lynne (Amy Adams), reinvents himself first as an
intern, through the turbulent 1970s to congressman, chief of staff, and, with a
call from George W. Bush, becomes Vice President. Bypassing Congressional
oversight, he has a direct influence in
energy, military, foreign policy, and authority over the White House which has
enormous consequences. With the 9/11
terrorist attack, he becomes arguably
the most powerful man in the world.
If
you buy McKay’s proposition, it’s a devastating history lesson of power wielded
maliciously by a political insider whose use of conservative media, propaganda,
and outrageous statements reverberates to this day. McKay is not
afraid to scramble the film’s narrative structure (with touches reminiscent
of documentarian Michael Moore) or fooling the audience with an ‘ending’.
The
great cast (with Steve Carell quite effective as key mentor Donald Rumsfeld and
Sam Rockwell hamming it up as George W. Bush) portrays characters that are
almost caricatures, but it is Bale’s dead
on transformation (abetted by great makeup) that is remarkable and thoroughly convincing. (There are amusing
cameos by Alfred Molina and Naomi Watts.)
It’s a portrait of
the American Dream corrupted by a politician whose rise to power was matched by
his far reaching control.
The postscript on Iraq is sobering, and there is a mid-credit scene!
***1/2
of ****stars (add ½* for Bale)
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