Movie Review: "Vice"

"Vice": B+.  What to make of director Adam McKay's latest film, Vice?  That is the question.  Do we accept that most, if not all, of the main facets of Dick Cheney's life displayed in the film are accurate?  If so, two thoughts immediately come to mind.  First, Washington, D.C. became "The Swamp" long before that term was popularized by the 2016 Trump campaign to describe the players comprising the federal government.  Secondly, it should give Americans pause to realize that for eight years starting in January 2001, a man of Cheney's questionable character was the proverbial one heartbeat away from the presidency.  It's a good thing that the executive branch member with the troublesome heart condition was Cheney and not his boss, President George W. Bush.  Our country likely would have taken a giant step backward if Bush's V.P. had ascended to the Oval Office, either due to an early termination of the Bush presidency or via the presidential election of 2008.

But on the flip side, can we as viewers really be expected to believe all the negative aspects of the title character presented by McKay?  The director's style includes: the use of pop-up cartoons; mixing of actual historic film footage with newly created video (a la director Oliver Stone, known for his films such as 1991's JFK espousing conspiracy theories); humorous explanatory narration delivered by the mysterious Kurt (Jesse Clemens), who seems to come out of nowhere; and, a clear lack of balance -- did Cheney not have even one redeeming feature? This approach to storytelling reminds us of the technique McKay used in 2015's The Big Short (reviewed here February 8, 2016; A-) to explain the financial crisis of 2008.  Both The Big Short and Vice are cleverly produced, information-packed films which at some points feel like comic books.  It's ironic that flippancy for the earlier film does not detract from veracity, whereas in the new film it begs the question of whether the truth is sometimes sacrificed for the sake of humor.

The most clever insertion of the director's whimsy comes about two-thirds of the way through Vice when faux "closing credits" roll over the screen indicating that, before Dick became V.P., the Cheneys retired in solitude to a non-political life on a Virginia estate.  A few moments later, the "real" story continues.

Getting back to my originally posed question, I offer a lawyer's favorite response: It depends.  If you are attending Vice with the goal of obtaining an honest assessment of the forty-sixth vice president, you would be well advised to rely on more than just this one source.  On the other hand, if what you're after is two-plus hours of sheer entertainment, with a modicum of playfulness, you've come to the right place.  My objective leaned more toward the latter; hence my grade is a B+.  Taken as a comic biopic, the high grade is merited.

Leading man Christian Bale has already established himself as one of Hollywood's most skilled actors.  He absolutely nails the Cheney character in terms of body language, complete with old age slumping, facial expressions which almost segue into contortions, demeanor and mannerisms.  Even the way Bale wears those round frame glasses is spot on.  Word from entertainment media is that Bale put on dozens of pounds to replicate Cheney's physique.  One would hope the producers kept a cardiologist on retainer.  A tip of the cap goes to the make up and prosthetics team headed by Kate Briscoe and Greg Cannom.  Making their tasks more difficult is the time span covered by the film, from Cheney's late teenage years in Wyoming to his life as a senior citizen in bad health.

The real Dick Chaney had three women in his family life, wife Lynne (Amy Adams) plus daughters Mary (Alison Pill) and Liz (Lily Rabe).  Adams has that cute, almost cherubic face, but those looks belie Lynne's toughness and grit.  Lynne is arguably responsible for her husband's political career.  In the 1978 campaign for Wyoming's sole U.S. House seat, she fills in much more than adequately for her ailing husband, making stump speeches and other public appearances on his behalf.  Even in D.C. she has his ear on policy issues more than many of his cadre of experts.

Dick's toughest internal dilemma is how to react to daughter Mary's declaration that she is gay.  As a conservative who is driven by a lust for power -- a fault introduced in the opening scene when Cheney gives executive orders during the 9-11 terrorist attacks without bringing President Bush into the loop -- he is torn between supporting his daughter and risking the loss of his political base.  We are left to speculate whether this quandary was the tipping point which led to Senator John McCain, rather than Cheney, being the Republican party's nominee for president in 2008.

Sam Rockwell looks and acts as much like the real "President W" as Bale does Cheney.  The Texas twang, the vacant nodding of the head, the good-naturedness, the tendency to settle for quick, easy answers; these quirks of W are all mastered by Rockwell.  In a 2015 commencement address at Southern Methodist University, ex-President Bush said to the graduates, "As I like to tell the 'C' students, you, too, can be president."  That is the "Dub" we can feel in Rockwell's performance.

The actor who might make the most of his limited on-screen time is Steve Carell, playing Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  History has been unkind to Rumsfeld, who was a Viet Nam War hawk.  Thus it was an interesting choice to cast the comedian, Carell, for that part.  The verdict?  Carell steals most of the scenes in which he appears.

There are not many shortcomings to Vice once you have bought into McKay's preferred M.O. of storytelling.  The film leaves a few gaps getting from one point to the other.  Most notably, Cheney goes from being an Ivy League flunky to an internship in Washington in record time without a satisfactory explanation of how that could come to pass.  Also, due to McKay's emphasis on power-mongering, we're left in the dark on where Cheney stands on specific issues of the day.  Lastly, the good people of Wyoming are depicted as rubes, simpletons and roughnecks.  Isn't it sad that Hollywood has a hard time finding good people in the plains and mountain states?  Well, at least McKay didn't pick on North Dakotans.

During the eight years George W. Bush was in the White House, the press and the late night comics used to opine that it was really Dick Cheney who was running the country.  After he left office, Bush himself even joked about it.  That extreme, scary possibility is not dispelled by Vice.