This movie trailer is what movie trailers should aspire to be. Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), and a yet nameless Fox News employee (Margot Robbie) together in an elevator, the second floor button pressed. The two anchors sneaked glances at Robbie who looked like a sheep on its way to the wolf’s floor. Backed with stabbing choir ensemble music, the scene was gripping. What were those glances all about? Why the awkwardness? Why the second floor? It drew you in, it kept you interested, it kept you engaged.
The entire film, sadly, did not.
The movie starts like a Fox documentary—narrated by the ultra blonde strong-jawed Megyn Kelly. There was no doubt why they won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyle. She tours the audience around the Fox Headquarters, floor by floor, and speaks to the camera like any news anchor would. Theron tried her best. She really did try to sound like Megyn Kelly. But the news anchor’s cadence just sounded too robotic at times, at least for me.
The movie is ripe with voice-overs and monologues. In my favorite scene, one hears the inner voice of Rudi Bakhtiar (Nazanin Boniadi) telling her to reject a quid pro quo from her boss. She did, and she got fired immediately. In another, we have Carlson breaking the fourth wall, looking at the audience in disgust. At the end, we even hear Robbie’s character, out of the blue, share pieces of her thoughts. Individually, these scenes were great. They were well-written and smartly executed. Taken as a a whole though, it’s a different story. Like in real life, you don’t know who to listen to.
Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents, Trumbo) banked on big names. The film portrayed Megyn Kelly as the primary hero, the one that pushed the snowball off the hill. Which baffled me. The story would still be a story without Kelly at the fore. If you think about it, Gretchen Carlson was the first to jump off the cliff, and then the rest said, “Me too.”
I was expecting a lot more from this film. But for the big bombshell it had promised, there was only a puff of smoke. It failed to do justice the great source material it had. It clouded-over the great individual performances with its confusing multiple points of views. What it achieved in make-up, it threw it away with that horrendous Bill O’Reilly deepfake. Alas. The movie, with its incredible trailer, did not measure up. 2/4 stars.
Image: Copyright Hilary B. Gayle
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