Catch a predatory Fox
BOMBSHELL
★★★ (Cert 15, 109mins)
HOLLYWOOD’S first #MeToo movie is a challenging proposition, especially for British audiences.This satire is based on recent events at Fox News and boasts three very recognisable stars in Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie.
But the sexual harassment scandal involving its chairman Roger Ailes (played by John Lithgow in a fat suit) didn’t make much of a splash over here and there were few complaints when owner Rupert Murdoch pulled Fox News from the UK in 2017.
However last week Theron won an Oscar nomination for her leading role as anchorwoman Megyn Kelly, though you may struggle to recognise her under the convincing prosthetics of Kazu Hiro, the make-up artist who turned Gary Oldman into Churchill for Darkest Hour.And director Jay Roach and The Big Short writer Charles Randolph provide enough details to make Bombshell watchable for British audiences.
We begin in 2016 as Kelly takes us on a tour of the newsroom and explains how Ailes used women’s legs as a way to get men hooked on 24-hour news (that’s why all the tables are transparent).
She is riding high at the network so Ailes gives her the job of interviewing runaway Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Bolstered by support from Murdoch (Malcolm McDowell), Kelly decides to ambush Trump by quoting his past comments about women.The interview doesn’t go well.After getting under his now famously thin skin, the future president responds by trolling her on Twitter.
Ailes is supportive. He orders Kelly to take a break to avoid becoming “the story” but praises her for making “great TV”. But as millennial newcomer Katya Pospisil (a fictional
character played by Robbie) discovers, Roger’s support comes with a price. In a queasy scene, she’s ordered to hitch up her skirt in his office. “It’s a visual medium,” he salivates before warning her of the value of “loyalty”.
Gretchen Carlson’s (Kidman) days of doing “favours” for Ailes are coming to an end.The veteran newsreader has been shunted from primetime to the graveyard shot and, when she presents a “no cosmetics” show,Ailes erupts, telling her no one wants to watch a middle-aged woman sweat.
The three strands come together when Carlson blows the whistle after being sacked. For years Kelly has put ambition first but now she has to decide whether it’s time to make a stand.The film shows how powerful women can become complicit in their own harassment.
Theron makes us feel the weight of Kelly’s dilemma but an anchorwoman who tells viewers that Santa and Jesus are white was always going to make for a challenging heroine.
As there’s nobody to root for, Bombshell never really catches fire.