Charlize Theron shines as Megyn Kelly in ‘Bombshell’
Though often clunky in its balance of dark humor and drama, “Bombshell” remains watchable for its compelling ensemble cast.
Directed by “Austin Powers” filmmaker Jay Roach, “Bombshell” combines documentary-like shots (think erratic zooms and pans across a newsroom to capture drama) and some “Big Short” fourth-wall breakage that gives some insight into the real-life sexual harassment scandal that rocked Fox News during the 2016 presidential election.
Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman portray former Fox figures Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, respectively, who rise and fall in the hierarchy of the network based on the whims of its unscrupulous predatory leader, Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). With the addition of fictional staffer Kayla Pospisil (a composite character played by Margot Robbie), the film aims to bring to light the habitual debasement and objectification women received from Ailes, regardless of their stature in the cable news realm.
Theron embodies Kelly with an uncanny precision by bringing the anchor’s detached, matter-of-fact ease in her husky speech from the moments we’re first introduced to her giving a tour of the Fox newsroom. Known for her ability to transform into any role, Theron’s take on Kelly is almost unsettlingly accurate. She argues to staffers and Ailes that she isn’t a feminist as she asks probing questions of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, and endures a relentless barrage of intimidation tactics from him as a whisper campaign about Ailes’ behavior swirls around her. Kelly doesn’t have to become “likable” by the film’s end for one to sympathize with her for being one of countless women targeted by powerful men.
In contrast to Kelly’s steely veneer, Kidman’s take on former “Fox & Friends” co-host Carlson is a woman who’s “stuck at second base” after learning to get along with her male colleagues. She’s the catalyst for the harassment suit against Ailes as her standing wanes. Kidman, who’s played benign supporting roles in this year’s “The Upside” and “The Goldfinch” is given more to do than those decorative parts. She gets to make impassioned monologues to lawyers about how she wants to change the culture at her workplace before she’s unceremoniously discarded.
“I refuse to be replaceable,” she utters as she prepares to go to war.
Lithgow’s Ailes is misogynistic and disgusting, an almost pitiful glimpse at a man who steered cable news into what it unfortunately is today. Attempts at humanizing him through his final attempts at wielding power feel hollow, even as he’s getting his comeuppance.
Supporting characters include a closeted lesbian — and liberal — played by Kate McKinnon, who shines in her acerbic delivery. Others, like Holland Taylor as Ailes’ longstanding and complicit secretary, Alanna Ubach’s Judge Jeanine Pirro, and Allison Janney as Ailes’ attorney give a glimpse of women who believe predators accused in the era of #MeToo.
Arguably the most well-rounded character in the film is Robbie’s green but ambitious staffer, Kayla, a self-described “evangelical Millennial” who worships Fox. She’s a window into how some women were forced to “play the game” at the network by enduring Ailes’ lecherous gaze. There’s a terribly uncomfortable scene in which Kayla visits Ailes at his office, where the “discreet but unforgiving” boss demands her to hike up her skirt so he can see her underwear. Robbie’s once eager expression changes to resignation and clutches her skirt higher and higher, looking only at the wall.
Though all three principal actresses share little screen time together (save for a tense elevator ride) their stories are interconnected and are eerily similar as more women step forward to help Carlson’s cause.
They’re not friends, by any means, but allies.
Though the stories explored in “Bombshell” are explosive, the film’s uneven pace makes them merely sizzle like reading a news brief instead of an illustrative Vanity Fair profile. It may be difficult to divorce the Fox News of it all — something that never really gets indicted in the same way as Ailes’ behavior — but it’s still a story worth telling.
If only it gave its heroines more to do.