TRUMBO (2015) – The Review

The newest big screen “golden age of Hollywood” biography represents something of a 2015 trilogy, a hat trick, if you will. It doesn’t focus on the illustrious career of a celebrated actor or actress, but there are some stars involved and in support. No, this is the story of a legendary screenwriter, yes an idea man. The man in question is one Dalton Trumbo, a fellow nearly as theatrical as the thespians reciting his words. Beyond his work, he was perhaps best known as the most famous of the “Hollywood Ten” during the Communist “witch hunts” of the 1950’s. So the “cold war” is the backdrop for this bio, much as it was for BRIDGE OF SPIES, the true life drama, and that frothy spy send-up, THE MAN FROM UNCLE, both released earlier this year. It’s odd that this is the last film to arrive in theatres, though its events precede the other two. And while the other films were mostly set on foreign soil, this film is pretty much set in “tinsel town”, where careers and lives were destroyed over “anti-red” hysteria. This was nearly the fate of the creative wordsmith named TRUMBO.

In 1947 Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was the unofficial king of movie writers. He had just signed a lucrative exclusive contract with MGM. And he enjoyed his plush ranch house by a lake just outside LA, a home he shared with his devoted wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and their three young children Mitzi, Chris, and Niki. But storm clouds were on the horizon. HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee) was picking up steam and decided to go after “red sympathizers” in the film industry. Acting on tips from powerful newspaper gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and the president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, actor John Wayne (David James Elliott), Congress subpoenaed registered Communist Trumbo. He was the most vocal of the media-named “Hollywood Ten” a group of screenwriters who refused to answer the committee’s questions and wouldn’t name names. Although he had the support of good friend, actor Edward G Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg), and others (we see newsreel footage of Danny Kaye, Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Bacall speaking out for the “ten” and we hear radio spots featuring Lucille Ball and Gregory Peck), a defiant Trumbo is cited for contempt of Congress and sent to a federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky for eleven months. When he gets out, Trumbo is on the “blacklist” and no studio will touch him. Selling the ranch, they move into a modest suburban home. The desperate writer hatches a plan to continue working. For plan A he asks another non-blacklisted writer to submit Trumbo’s screenplay under the other man’s name (known as “fronting”). It works so well that the other man grabs an Oscar. Then, for plan B, Trumbo marches down to the offices of the low-budget independent producers Frank (John Goodman) and Hymie (Stephen Root) King. Trumbo and his out of work pals will write and fix as many projects as they are given, all working under pseudonyms and paid in cash (at a low, low rate). The family (wife Cleo and the kids) will drop off scripts and payments. Then, in 1956, THE BRAVE ONE gets an Oscar: Best Original Screenplay for “Robert Rich”. Trumbo ends wild speculation when he announces on a live TV interview that he indeed is Rich. This attracts the attention of two big powerful names. Kirk Douglas (Dean O’Gorman) who needs help on his big movie version of SPARTACUS, as does prickly director Otto Preminger(Christian Berkel) with his film adaptation of EXODUS. Will these men defy the old guard and give full screen credit to Trumbo, thereby destroying the blacklist once and for all?

Well, if you’re a classic film buff you know the answer to that. The fun is in the telling of this bit of history and Cranston, in his first big movie leading role, makes it fun (and he seems to be having fun, too). In the opening minutes he appears to be doing an amusing take on the intellectual “dandy” with his big curled mustache and cigarette holder, but when the pressure’s on, Trumbo becomes a dogged defender of personal liberties. Cranston conveys that determination while trying to conceal his inner terror at the thought of being separated from the family he adores. And with his banishment, he becomes both mastermind and hustler, finding a way to still use his talents. However Cranston lets us in on the flaws of this unlikely hero as he pushes those around him to the brink, even as he abuses his own health as an almost one-man script factory. Mr. Cranston conquered TV and with this role he establishes himself as a most compelling film star.

Of course it helps that Cranston’s Trumbo has an equally interesting adversary, mind you a most worthy villain. Now there are altercations with studio execs and actors (notably the “Duke”), but none spew venom better than Mirren as a very different screen queen. Hopper thought she was Hollywood royalty, better than the weak actors that filled her columns, and Mirren makes her a memorable movie bully who shoots daggers out of her eyes at the hounded writer. She doesn’t limit her acid tongue on the title hero. In a memorable scene, Hopper gleefully reminds a top mogul of his Eastern European roots, rattling off semitic names like poison darts. Mirren proves to be very good at being very bad. The other women in the cast aren’t nearly as interesting, unfortunately. Lane is the faithful wife who keeps the family together and dutifully waits for her hubby’s return from jail. It’s not until the second act, when Lane’s Cleo gets to shine as she tells her hubby that he’s a hermit in their own home. Much of that is evident in Elle Fanning’s work as the teenaged, oldest daughter Niki, who seems to truly be her father’s girl as she throws herself into the civil rights movement. Comedian Louis C.K. gives a subtle, understated performance as one of Trumbo’s friends, and “ten” cohort, who shares his left beliefs, but questions his pal’s fervent pursuit of the “green”. He manages to be both tragic and very funny. As for those playing TV “late show movie” icons, Stuhlbarg mostly suggests Eddie G with make-up and fashions going from on-screen tough-guy to off-screen sophisticate. He never attempts to mimic the actor’s distinctive delivery (thereby avoiding younger audience remarking that he’s doing “Chief Wiggum” from TV’s “The Simpsons”), rather he focuses in on the man’s inner turmoil and self-disgust. After PAWN SACRIFICE and STEVE JOBS, this film completes a great hat trick for the talented actor. Elliott gives us a hint of Wayne’s familiar drawl, while O’Gorman, though a tad too young, reminds us of Kirk’s intense macho swagger without dipping into a Frank Gorshin-like parody. Berkel expertly exudes Preminger’s haughty aristocratic arrogance. Oh, and Goodman’s energetic take on the sleazy “B” picture czar, Frank King, is quite a treat making him a side-splitting, foul-mouthed human wrecking ball (the opposite of his kindly studio boss in THE ARTIST).

Director Jay Roach, best known as the man behind the Austin Powers series and MEET THE PARENTS, keeps the film running along at a brisk pace while capturing the uneasy feel of the country right after the last world war. The screenplay by TV scribe John McNamara from the book “Dalton Trumbo” by Bruce Cook includes several clever jibes and quips, even as liberties are taken (did Trumbo really confront Wayne?) for dramatic and humorous effect. But much as with the recent BLACK MASS, the film becomes a checklist, this time of films and trials (“this happened, then this, and then…”), with the movie marching steady through as each ‘life moment” is crossed off, lessening its impact. It doesn’t help that the story ends with a ten-year jump ahead with a cliché ridden awards ceremony that has Trumbo delivering an uplifting speech as the camera captures every major character beaming at him from their seats in the audience. In this way, the film seems more like Roach’s work for HBO on real-life recent politics in “Recount” and “Game Change” with comics and actors playing “old-timey movie star dress-up” with vintage threads, hair, and make-up. However the final studio days are captured well and the actors are very entertaining. Though flawed, TRUMBO is an effective reminder that those “good ole’ days” were really pretty not-so-good on those who didn’t conform or submit.

4 Out of 5

TRUMBO opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas