BOMBSHELL (2020) FILM REVIEW

**

15, 108 Mins

'Bombshell' is all glitz and glam, but where're the stories?

Screenwriter Charles Randolph has an irksome habit of coercing comedic directors into dramatic projects frankly out of their depth. First with 'Anchorman' anchor Adam McKay and 'The Big Short' (2016) - a shallow spin on the 2008 Financial Crisis - and now with 'Austin Powers' man Jay Roach and 'Bombshell' (2020) which details the 2016 Fox News sexual harassment scandal that precipitated the #TimesUp and #MeToo Movements.

''Bombshell' isn't as smug and overrated as that earlier film, but similarly only sensationally scratches the surface of its subject matter. It's a three-sided coin that's title is both a play on journalistic bombshells, but also refers to the blondeness of its trio of heroines (one of whom is fictional) who brought down loathsome CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow beneath fatty prosthetic layers).

Charlize Theron leads the pack as the hard-nosed anchorwoman Megyn Kelly; breaking the fourth wall to preach the channel's reactionary propaganda 'House of Cards'-style. She nails the blunt accent, swaying gait and sycophantic smiles, but I never bought the fact that I was watching anything more than an impersonation as opposed to a true disappearance into character.

I felt a similar way about Margot Robbie who is playing Kayla Popisil - a composite of several women at Fox News who spoke out against Ailes. She's frustratingly wasted on sex appeal.

The only female character with an inkling of depth here is actually Nicole Kidman's Gretchen Carlson - the first woman to come forward. Her role sadly ends up fading into the hollowness of Theron and Robbie, though.

Like its women, 'Bombshell' is a glitzy and glamourous affair replete with colourful newsroom sets. Maybe a bit too glitz and glam as it seems to either gloss over the psychological horrors of sexual harassment or sensationalize the stories without digging any deeper. Is it wrong to want it all to be a tad more horrifying?

Thank goodness for John Lithgow then who brings a corpulent lechery to Ailes himself. It digs this terribly tabloidized and sucrose affair a decent bit of dirt.

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