The 76th Golden Globe Awards weren’t particularly eventful but, now that the curtain has fallen, the Oscar picture has gained some clarity. Quite frankly, their nominations left a lot to be desired and didn’t fully represent an outstanding year in cinema. There weren’t really too many surprises but, based on their own nominations, the Globes got it mostly right. While Vice a uniquely made satirical assault, earning six nominations and one win, its reach certainly exceeds its grasp thanks in large part to its politics.
Christian Bale is no stranger to eclectic roles and taking on Dick Cheney may be the most ambitious portrayal he’s ever undertaken. This was another transformative performance from the veteran Oscar winner who was remarkably abhorrent, laced with incredible body language cues and nuanced personality quirks. His speech cadence, delivery, and timing punctuated the fantastic prosthetics by Greg Cannom and Brian Wade. Honestly, it wasn’t just Bale either. The make-up and prosthetics team did a great job across the board but turning a guy that once played Bruce Wayne into Dick Cheney obviously takes the cake. It was one of those performances that’s undeniably dominant and captivating despite the nature of the person being portrayed. Bale rightly took home the trophy for Best Actor – Comedy or Musical, despite legitimate competition from Viggo Mortensen, and would be the odds-on favorite to take home the Oscar for Best Actor if it weren’t for Rami Malek’s turn as Freddie Mercury. The Welshman can next be seen in Ford v. Ferrari due out in June.
Amy Adams delivered the most notable of the supporting performances as Lynne Cheney. At least in this story, it was mainly her ambition that pushed her husband into politics and Adams set a hard edge early on. She had very good chemistry with Bale as partners but there was a noted lack of romantic chemistry between them as a result of the relationship written for the pair. Their story is presented as basically a business partnership from the outset, so an affectionate showing would have felt out of character for them anyway. This was a much more versatile showing for the 44-year-old actress than either of her roles in Arrival or Nocturnal Animals in 2016. Best Supporting Actress is a really tough category and she didn’t get the Globe this year but there is no doubt Adams belongs in that group and could be a darkhorse come Oscar time.
There is really no way around it, this film was oddly pieced together…both from the director’s chair and in the editing room. A fair amount of the footage is either B-roll or archival footage which toys with realism and fuels the mockumentary vibes. Director Adam McKay made his name on comedies, mostly the more outrageous stuff with Will Ferrell, and although this was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes…honestly…it’s not very funny. Sure, it can draw some chuckles or a wry smile here or there with the humor incorporated into the script but the combination of subject matter and exposition didn’t lend itself to the “comedy” genre. Sure it’s satire, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a comedy. However, attempting to tackle this story with no humor whatsoever is just depressing. And the whole unreliable narrator thing was too much gimmick and just didn’t work well. After acknowledging the movie could only be as true as public records would allow, pinning the narration on a guy who had no inside information whatsoever only served to undermine the credibility the film was looking to establish. McKay did get some very good performances from his cast and moved the film along at a good pace thanks to Film Editor Hank Corwin who had a very tough job piecing everything together. For my money, he’s on the bubble for the Best Director category.
The cast was fantastic, loaded with talent, as with any project Francine Maisler gets her hands on. I’ve been a big fan of Sam Rockwell for a long time and he was a great George W. Bush (there could be a whole separate film there) but that wasn’t the best supporting performance in the film. He’s fun to watch in the role but really isn’t in it that much. Steve Carell, on the other hand, had a lot of screen time as Donald Rumsfeld and shared much of that with Bale. He essentially mentors Cheney and that relationship is crucial to character foundation. Carell brought a lot of charisma to a rather smarmy character and really paved the way for Bale to take the baton.
It’s easy to acknowledge this was a good movie but it’s more difficult to say it’s one of the year’s 10 best. Republicans will more than likely hate it. Liberals will more than likely love it, which should give it some legs at the Academy Awards. It was billed as The Wolf of Wall Street meets Washington, D.C. but I was hoping for a lot more from it. It had the familiar frenetic energy of The Big Short but lacked charisma at the head of the spear. I’m aware it’s intentional but it still plays a factor in the overall enjoyability of the film. For better or worse, all things considered, it wasn’t the disemboweling I anticipated of the former Veep.
Recommendation: This movie is very clearly aimed in one direction so personal politics will likely get in the way, one way or the other, but see it for the performances.