Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Bill Pullman, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill
Rating: 15
Running time: 132 mins
Release date: 25/01/2019
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an actor who has undergone a dramatic transformation for a role must be in want of an Oscar. Ever since Marlon Brando mumbled his way through a mouthful of cotton wool to win (and ultimately refuse) the 1973 Best Actor award for his turn in The Godfather, audiences have been regularly treated to the cinematic schadenfreude of seeing stars dress down- and generally fatten up- for the chance to snag the industry’s most prestigious prize.
In 2003, Nicole Kidman and her prosthetic nose secured Best Actress- a year later, Charlize Theron won for her role as serial killer Aileen Wurnos in Monster. In 2011 Christian Bale won Best Supporting Actor after slimming down and shaving in a bald patch to play fighter Dicky Eklund- and a mere eight years later he’s back, playing another Dick, and going for gold again.
Adam Mackay‘s Vice is the story of Dick Cheney and how he went from being a young man in rural Wyoming, married to his childhood sweetheart (Lynne Cheney/ Amy Adams) to the most powerful man in American politics. Spanning fifty years, we see the journey in full- the wide eyed admiration for Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) who teaches him the ropes, his time in the Nixon administration, his position as White House Chief of Staff under Gerald Ford, before eventually becoming Vice President to George W Bush, played here by a gloriously dim Sam Rockwell in what is- you would hope- an exaggerated performance. Simultaneously we get a glimpse into Cheney’s domestic life, his wife’s unending support, and witness the personal and political colliding when his daughter comes out as gay.
On paper it might not sound like as much fun as it is- and make no mistake it is fun, if horrifying at times. At 132 minutes it’s not short and yet when you consider the film spans half a century, it’s quite astonishing how much they’ve managed to pack in. Adam Mackay’s signature choppy edit and love of cutaways keeps the story engaging while also making it feel like a grown up episode of Family Guy- and indeed Vice is at its best when it’s being utterly absurdist. There are plenty of these moments to enjoy: Alfred Molina makes a memorable appearance as a waiter in a restaurant, listing not dishes of the day but all the various forms of torture the administration could choose to exorcise in the war on terror. Similarly, in one domestic scene the Cheney’s talk to each other in over-the-top Shakespearean dialect, as a comment on the modern world’s inability to communicate. For every great cutaway however, there is a fairly sub-standard one to redress the balance: stock footage of a lion violently attacking its prey every time there was a close up of Cheney deep in thought was a bit too on-the-nose for my liking, as was every shot of slow motion fishing. On the one hand the makers are assuming an audience intelligent enough to accept huge jumps in time, keep up with the politics of the era and any surrealist commentary that goes with that, while on the other hand they also seem to think making stock footage slow-mo will make it intrinsically meaningful, and this can feel like the film contradicting itself.
But Vice is ultimately about exactly these contradictions- or rather balance. Cheney is a ruthless power hungry politician- but he’s also a loving father and husband. He’s a man who has made questionable decisions- but one who can articulately explain how he reached those decisions. And though the filmmakers vilify him in places, they idolise him in others- most probably because unlike the current President, he has adequate knowledge of the inner workings of politics. Think for a moment about what the inevitable Trump movie will be like. The story of a flame-haired, misogynistic property-tycoon-turned-President obsessed with building an expensive wall, alienating and offending half his own country, while galvanising and exacerbating the very worst human qualities of the rest. There will be no balance in that film- no soppy moment with Melania and Donald Jr that will make you think ‘ah, see, he wasn’t so bad.’
And this is really exactly why Vice works as a film- the dichotomy of Dick Cheney’s character means that even as we see the worst of him, we see the best. Of course, it helps that Christian Bale is having so much fun with the role- and that this is not a documentary on Cheney but a Hollywood retelling of his rise to power. Who knows what the real Dick Cheney is like- but Bale’s rendering of him is detailed and multi layered, both gritty and fluffy- much like the film itself. Don’t count Bale out of the Oscars race just yet: if he’s learned anything playing Dick Cheney, it’s probably how to get what you want at any cost.
