Three years ago, Adam McKay won an Oscar. This was… a career shift: McKay made his name directing Will Ferrell comedies like “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights.” He’d never come off as a bad filmmaker (“Anchorman” is a classic), but awards-bait wasn’t his niche. “The Big Short” changed all that—the success of McKay’s frantic retelling of the 2007/8 financial crisis reframed his trajectory towards urgent, political material.
Alas, “Vice,” McKay’s second semi-serious effort, winds up being blisteringly average. Again, this is a story we all lived through: Christian Bale stars as the tyrannical V.P., one Richard “Dick” Cheney. The film opens with Cheney, a Yale dropout, getting pulled over for his next DUI, then flashes forward to Cheney in the situation room on 9/11, using the tragedy as an opportunity to amass power—“Vice” promises to fill in the gap.
The film works best while Cheney is clawing his way to the top; motivated by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams) and threats of divorce if he doesn’t clean up his act. Dick attends a 1968 Congressional internship program, where he becomes a lackey of then-Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell). Of the performers in McKay’s picture, Carrell turns in the best work as the slimy Rumsfeld, while Adams could do this role with at least one hand tied behind her back.
Bale, meanwhile, never finds anything new or insightful in Cheney’s psyche—but perhaps that’s the fault of the film as a whole. Nearly everyone who buys a ticket to “Vice” is going into the theater knowing Cheney is a bad guy who will leave the world a worse place than he found it. But McKay doesn’t seem to have this much faith in his audience, using a grab-bag of fourth-wall breaking tricks and in-your-face narration to illustrate some relatively simple ideas. It’s all about as subtle as “Aquaman,” and for a movie that promises “the untold true story,” “Vice” has very little to say.
At least it’s entertaining for the most part (basically a watered-down Armando Iannucci flick). Sam Rockwell’s impression of George Bush is pretty funny, but by the time Bush and Cheney actually make it to the White House, McKay is in a hurry to wrap things up. “Vice” certainly fails to stick the landing, and things go from bad-to-worse with an end credits scene that leaves a truly sour aftertaste. If McKay wants to take home any more golden statues—or better still, actually make a good movie—he’s going have to start treating his audience with a bit more respect. It’s not that complicated.
