Trumbo

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is on a high in Hollywood. He is a significant figure and a captain of free speech. A staunch communist who also believes in his home, America. All is about to change however when he and other screen writers in Hollywood are put to trial by the HUAC. They are blacklisted for their political beliefs and some, including Trumbo are sent to prison. Trumbo is attacked in the press by Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and vilified by John Wayne. Thanks to Kirk Douglas he gets a second chance, when he writes a well know piece called Spartacus.

Splendid and satisfying is what a friend who reviewed this film said. I on the other hand would not use the words either splendid or satisfying. I could say that the film is a light weighted version of the truth, mixed within a soft hue of light and fancy sets. The problem is that I know a lot about the HUAC activity. Yes it was a total farce, as the film rightfully portrays. It was also a collection of self serving, ignorant and hypocritical people trying to gain public credentials, also rightly illustrated. It was a horrid exercise in chicanary and deserves to be opened up to historical analysis. My problem with it however is that it does not go hard enough on the subject or the reality. This in turn is my problem with the film in general. It is weak at the weighty stuff and instead plays it like a soft comedy. Due much to the director Jay Roach playing this like films he has already directed before.

It is very well written, which would have pleased Trumbo. He would have loved the cutting fire of the verbal duel. It is a very witty script and the actors laud in it. They also camp it up a bit which works well with the tone but makes them less human. I felt I could not connect to them as people. Visually also it is dull. The focus is soft, the framing is dry and the feel is that of a Hallmark movie. The sets though lovely looking are too polished and pristine to make us care about those caught in the HUAC crossfire. Its imagining of these peoples lives adds a bitter note of emptiness in its execution. With Cranston on fine form as a foppish Trumbo however this did not matter too much to the casual viewer. They will pick up information on HUAC, Trumbo and the like without caring about its complexity....