With a subject that doesn't immediately inspires laugh out loud hysterics, Adam McKay (“Anchorman,” “The Big Short”) continues his move from screwball comedy into the world of "based on a true story" dramedies. He’s chosen former Vice President Dick Cheney as the basis for his next film. With a cast consisting of McKay veterans and new players, he’s set in motion what could be his most complex film yet.
Could is the operative word.
Because when tackling someone like Cheney, a person that the film even acknowledges has a secretive life, a large amount of care must go into the proceedings to make sure everything is either correct or appears so. This can lead to a lot of difficult work from the writers, but it can pay off in the end. Like in his previous work “The Big Short,” writer/director Adam McKay has clearly put work into making sure the right people are saying and doing the right things.
It's evident that attention to detail was a major factor, and it shows. However, as good as this attention to detail is, it sacrifices something major that, before “Vice,” McKay had been a razor-sharp master of tone.
“Vice” has one glaringly huge problem at its center, much like Cheney’s early heart. The film itself seems unsure of what it wants to be. A riotous comedy filled with sly cutaways and “I-see-what-you-did-there” moments, or a serious drama about the trials and tribulations of one of the most reviled figures in American political history.
This leads to a lot of the storytelling techniques that McKay used in “The Big Short” failing here, due to the inconsistent and indecisive tone. As the film goes on, it becomes less apparent what is meant to be a joke and what is meant to be taken seriously, leading to a bizarre feeling of bleakness.
When Cheney is sitting talking with Bush about being his running mate, the film constantly flips back to shots of Cheney fishing. It’s as if we’re meant to think “Oh, he’s got him hook, line and sinker.” But when those fishing scenes are forgotten about as the movie progresses, it mainly leads to confusion.
The same can be said for the numerous other cutaway scenes present throughout the film, save for one. The narrator, played by Jesse Plemons (“Game Night,” “Friday Night Lights”), and his small story is done masterfully well and almost makes the failures of the other cutaway moments seem worse by comparison.
Also present are scenes that seem to serve no purpose in the film whatsoever. At times, there will be scenes of the Cheney family having dinner at home, discussing random happenstance events, before cutting to bombings in Iraq and news coverage. It seems like McKay’s way of showing how Cheney “slept at night” despite his actions, but it just comes off as haphazard.
The film also seems to just simply end. There’s no coverage or footage of the investigations into Cheney and the last 30 minutes just feel like randomly spliced together scenes of Cheney looking solemn with news footage of the Obama inauguration and events afterwards.
Despite the uneven tonal work and bizarre cutaway moments, every performance in this film is incredible. Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight,” “American Psycho”) continues to show why he’s one of the finest actors alive, completely transforming himself into the former VP. He tries his damnedest to prevent McKay from turning Cheney into a cartoon villain and it's his attention to small mannerisms and vocal work that really seals this as one of the year’s finest performances.
Amy Adams (“Enchanted,” “The Master”) also further proves her talent as Lynn Cheney, Dick’s wife, and manages to hold her own against Bale throughout the movie. Steve Carell (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Little Miss Sunshine”) doesn’t do jaw-dropping work as Donald Rumsfeld, but what he does he does well, and with a ner-do-well smile. Sam Rockwell (“Galaxy Quest,” “Moon”) manages to find a fine line with his portrayal of George W. Bush. He avoids the overly serious stylings of Josh Brolin’s version and the overly comical style of Will Ferrell’s. He hits it right in the middle, giving great charm and gravitas to what could easily have been phoned in as a bumbling character.
As previously mentioned, Plemons does work of equal quality to Bale’s despite having significantly less screen time. The supporting cast consisting of Allison Pill (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” “The Newsroom”), Tyler Perry (“Gone Girl,” “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”), and Justin Kirk (“Angels in America,” “Weeds”) also do fine jobs.
What McKay has done with “Vice” is essentially what he did before with 2015’s “The Big Short;” taken a well-known bad thing and put his comedic spin on its true-life tale. However, that initial concept is where the similarities end. Because whereas before he seemed to be using a scalpel for his subject, here he appears to be using a club.
McKay is known for comedy, so it's understandable that he would try to take a serious situation like this and put an amusing spin on it. However, the film ends up feeling like he was the only one who knew it was going to be a comedy. It’s a dramatic story, told with dramatic performances, and directed like a comedy.
Poor and inconsistent tonal work and a bizarre reliance on cutaway sequences hurt a movie otherwise bolstered by a fantastic frame narrative and performances across the board. A lack of effective humor especially hurts, considering “Vice” marketed itself as a hilarious political comedy. It’s hard to say where exactly this movie went wrong, because nothing in it is really truly bad. It’s just deeply flawed. 2.5/5
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