Vice (2019) Review

I'm sat here at five-past-eleven eating noodles and, like many others, wondering what it is that I've been doing with my life. Specifically, the last two-and-a-half hours of my life; during which I sat in a dark room and watched Adam McKay's latest satirical hitjob, Vice (2019). It came to silver screens on a wave of fear and anticipation; The Big Short (2015), McKay's last outing, was arguably the best finflick in 30 years, his most recent outing seeks to exact the same perfectly-weighted compound of wit, montage and venom. It's a biopic with all the right features; why, then, does it sting so much less?

Before even the first public screening, Christian Bale was showered with praise from critics and co-stars alike. The problem really is self-perpetuating. Bale does succeed in transforming himself, yes, but fails in portraying his character with any sense of believability. The issue is two-fold; firstly, Bale is an exhibitionist. Cheney is not. For this casting to work, Bale would have needed to quell his own flamboyancies so as to transform into someone monotone. Secondly, he does not clearly understand his character's motivations. This second point is not his fault but rather the director's, and it is a fault that affects every fibre, every vein and capillary throughout the entire body of the film.

Vice (2019) takes a stab, sinks a hand into the wound but it never comes close to touching the heart of the man, Dick Cheney. To reach that subject matter would be a true achievement and the premise of a full-blooded movie. McKay does know that Cheney was ambitious, ruthless and oftentimes callous, what he doesn't is 'why'. Therefore, Vice (2019) emerges as only a shell of a film. It dazzles with beautifully-edited montages of history throughout the 00's and it sizzles with subliminal doses of drama, trauma, karma and fauna (oftentimes, an image of a roadside bomb exploding will be juxtaposed against shots of lakeside camellias) but there is always a hole in place of its heart. McKay knows how to connect disparate worlds and he knows how to yield drama from subject areas that are commonly desolate, however he comes up big short, in this instance, on the most important subject of all.

I was moved, appalled, humoured and thought-provoked by Vice (2019) but I was also left unsatisfied by the end product. This film is further proof that, without a coherent protagonist with clear motives, the story will always be left wanting.

★★☆☆☆