Best Pictures #48:
2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
“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.
Nominees: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay and Kevin
Messick, producers
Director: Adam McKay
Screenplay: Adam McKay
Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell
Production Companies: Plan B Entertainment, Gary Sanchez
Productions
Distributor: Annapurna Pictures
Release Date: December 25th, 2018
Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-Adam McKay, Original Screenplay-Adam
McKay; Actor-Christian Bale; Supporting Actress-Amy Adams; Supporting Actor-Sam
Rockwell; Editing-Hank Corwin; Makeup and Hairstyling-Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe,
Patricia Dehaney
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