Vice

This review may contain spoilers!

When Adam McKay directed The Big Short I found a film that stood out in 2016, with Vice I was excited to see what else McKay could do. Turns out the answer to that is a lot of the exact same. I would give Vice a 6/10.

Vice takes the audience into a look of the life of ex-VP, Dick Cheney, and how he wielded political power during his time in office. What Adam McKay does very well is presenting the satirical nature of his biopics, every scene is balanced towards a very dark punchline or to inform the audience so that they may be in on the not so funny joke: The message behind this film. Vice is brilliant in how it breaks apart and exposes the power structure within American politics and how easily this system can be manipulated to the advantage of power and greed. The cinematography used throughout is very deliberate and effective; McKay wields a tight frame well with all his dialogue sequences feeling very intimate, trapping the audience with his leading protagonist so you can't look away for a second.

Amy Adams, who played Lynne Cheney, seems hungry for power and position from the start; Adams reveals her role as a strong power player and manipulator throughout the film and in her hands, Lynne is a true force beside Bale's Cheney. Steve Carell, who played Donald Rumsfeld, begins the film as this boisterous wild card who plays the political landscape like it's the Wild West; Carell has a more restrained, suspicious approach when he returns in the final act signalling his role as the relic of an old era of politics. Sam Rockwell, who played George W. Bush, manages to capture the mannerisms and tone of the former American president perfectly; Rockwell presents this particular character as quite abrupt and clueless to the events of the film occurring around him. Alison Pill, who played Mary Cheney, gives an excellent display of a very vulnerable role throughout this feature; Pill's depiction of Mary coming out as a lesbian and her subsequent display when her family betrays her trust are very powerful moments. Shea Whigham, who played Wayne Vincent, is a very untrustworthy role from the start; his wild abusive introduction leading to his drunken state at his wife's funeral sets him as a low figure in a rather diabolical film.

However, the best performance came from Christian Bale, who played Dick Cheney. When we first meet this character Bale displays a very aloof, drunken wanderer, a man who has little ambition and no future. Yet he pivots in a way that is so believable, so convincing that the transition from drunkard to Vice-President seems a natural progression. Bale's depiction of Cheney awkwardly stumbling through his early political career is quite funny, yet he seems almost charming at first. However, there comes a tipping point where Cheney begins to learn from his surroundings and sees what will mean power for him and when. This is a role that has a lot of menace behind him yet he is so quiet, so deliberate that you almost believe everything he advocates comes from a place of reason. By the time we see Cheney in his later years he is so deep into his desire to hold a legacy in politics that he is willing to throw his very family under the bus.

While this film manages to pull off some moments of satire and presentation of information rather well it is hardly inspired or original cinema. A lot of this feature is merely the director pulling out all the same stops as he did on The Big Short. There are long overbearing metaphors that the film cuts to throughout, we often get hit by an unreliable narrator who also doubles as a rather dull role in the narrative and the incessant cutting to black, stock footage or photographs seems to have doubled since the last feature. At first, it's a jarring sensation that works wonders for the film, it ramps up the shock factor and makes the reveal of some information quite surprising. Then after the first 45 minutes, it's just repetitive and jarring. There are some moments where the director attempts to get creative with some of these off moments of satire by weaving in Shakespearean monologues or having the main character address the audience like House of Cards did years ago. These risks don't land and just make an already slow film look as overstuffed as Bale does in the film. The score for the film has a few tracks that lend some fine moments to the humour but overall it's forgettable and doesn't lend itself to the tone of the feature.

Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk, Don McManus and Tyler Perry, who played Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, David Addington and Colin Powell respectively, are a supporting cast of very proficient actors who are shunted into very bland background roles; these are roles that are almost always present yet are never given the time to actually stand out or make an impression. Jesse Plemons, who played Kurt, is a narrator for a film that doesn't exactly feel like it especially needs narration; because you never really connect with this role but just watch him spout exposition every so often the payoff with his plot twist is rather weak. Lily Rabe, who played Liz Cheney, is the counter to Pill's brilliant role; Rabe is quite monotonous to watch and never lends a great deal of personality to her role.