Christian Bale, balding, rotund, sneering, channels the gravel-voiced Vice President Dick Cheney in another amazing performance. He plays it funny and scary at the same time. Writer/Director, Adam McKay (Talladega Nights, Anchorman, SNL head writer) shines a light on the murky, clandestine, scheming character who is portrayed here as the puppet master behind the President of the United States. Produced in part by his partner, Will , and Best Picture-winning Moonlight makers Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner, this is McKay’s first foray directing since 2015’s The Big Short.
Bale gained forty pounds and shaved his head. Even though it’s easy to portray Cheney as a caricature, McKay and Bale treat him more as a brilliant tactician. Cheney anticipated multiple moves by opponents so he would rarely get outflanked, and all done under the radar.
The tone is set with the message on the screen that this film is based on true events but that Cheney was so secretive, the filmmakers “did our f*#king best.” McKay is getting us ready for a wild ride. He also uses voice-over narrative to fill in some blanks from his secretive subject and breaks the fourth wall which we found entertaining, but some have found too camp.
The film follows Cheney from his young Wyoming slacker days as a Yale drop out and heavy drinking who was whipped into shape by his equally smart, ambitious, manipulative taskmaster of a wife, Lynn. She’s portrayed with restrained anger and rage, but chillingly unemotional by Amy Adams. She takes an even more virulent “take-no-prisoners” attitude, especially reciting lines from MacBeth in a bedroom scene. An unexpected twist from McKay that gives another take on these characters right out of a Shakespearean tragedy.
And when George W. Bush, (played cluelessly by Sam Rockwell) asks him to run as his Vice President, Cheney angles for absolute power saying, “I can handle to more mundane jobs, overseeing bureaucracy, military, energy, and foreign policy.” And Bush, not even realizing what he’d be handing over, says “ Yeah, right, I like that,” while chewing on a piece of fried chicken. If it wasn’t so telling, it would be funny, and it is. Historical footage of Cheney in action bring back memories of how this Vice President steamrollered the Bush Administration and all of us at that time.
This parade of middle-aged White men in Bush’s administration, many of whom set the tone for where we are today, is first represented by Steve Carell in a cartoonish portrayal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Carell is in 3 very different films out now and he’s most over-the-top in this one. McKay gives a clue for how Cheney learned from Rumsfeld how to maneuver and grab power. McKay makes Carell an utterly ruthless character. He’d smile while sticking the knife in your back. And Cheney eventually became Rumsfeld’s master. At the same time, Cheney’s most trusted adviser, his savvy wife, warns “When you have power, people will always try to take it away from you….always.”
McKay gives texture to Dick and Lynne, when, despite their conservative social politics, they unconditionally accept their daughter’s coming out as gay. Not what you’d expect. Politically unwise but shows their family came first.
McKay details in a scene how truly powerful McKay really was, after Cheney, on a hunting excursion, shot a friend in the face which made big news. Incredibly, that friend ended up publicly apologizing to Cheney!
McKay wanted to put his own heart in this film and he did. Cheney had multiple heart attacks. McKay suffered one of his own making the film and used the image of his own heart blockage on the big screen to view as Cheney’s damaged organ. Bale’s research of Cheney’s heart problems helped McKay who told him to take baby aspirin and sent him to see the doctor when the director complained of similar symptoms after a work out together.
Bale is like chameleon. He has gone up and down the scale on several occasions to make his characters believable and this is no exception. Not only does he look like Cheney, thanks to makeup designers, Kate Biscoe (Sharp Objects, Behind the Candelabra) and prosthetics by Brian Wade with the rest of that department, but his mannerisms, speech and attitudes are spot on. Amy Adams grasps the loving, yet cold, but strong, smart wife so well. You may have trouble deciding if this is a drama or comedy. We think it’s worth seeing, especially with the present political climate. McKay’s satire creates a Vice that squeezes out laughs through clenched teeth.
Annapurna Pictures 2 Hours 12 Minutes R
