Trumbo-2015

Director Jay Roach

Starring Bryan Cranston

Scott’s Review #449

Reviewed July 11, 2016

Grade: B+

Trumbo, starring Bryan Cranston, who is suddenly in everything these days, is a 2015 biographical drama about Dalton Trumbo, a famed, talented Hollywood screenwriter blacklisted in the 1950s.

Cranston is center stage in the film, and very good.

The film has a crisp, glossy look and excites me with its ode to old Hollywood and its mix of real-life newsreels.

Great stuff for a classic film buff!

The sets, costumes, and art direction travel back to the 1940s and 1950s, but throughout I had a constant feeling of a modern film dressed to resemble an older one and never felt true authenticity.

Still, it’s a good effort and a well-above-average Hollywood film.

A treat for cinema lovers or even those folks interested in seeing some classic black-and-white footage- a young Ronald Reagan is seen testifying, presumably against those feared to be communists.

Following World War II, there was panic throughout the United States, including liberal Hollywood, to oust anyone with thinking deemed “un-American”.

If this sounds dated now, the United States was not always as diverse as it is in 2016.

The infamous “Hollywood 10” included ten screenwriters who were Communists, or at least had communist beliefs and sympathies. The story in Trumbo focuses on Dalton Trumbo, a quirky screenwriter, always with a classy cigarette, and holder, in hand.

The story shows his passion for fairness in the United States. He sees nothing wrong with being a communist.

The supporting characters are excellent.

John Goodman, in the role of Frank King, a B-movie director who gives Trumbo a chance to write under a pseudonym, and Helen Mirren and David James Elliott, as villainous Hedda Hopper and John Wayne, respectively.

Diane Lane could have had more to do as Trumbo’s loyal wife, but sadly, Hollywood is not a woman’s world.

If I were to have any criticism of this film, it is that Trumbo is mainstream fare and not high on the edgy factor, which is only a mild complaint.

That’s not wrong, but the film screams Hollywood-branded.

For instance, throughout Trumbo’s two-year prison sentence, he faces no real threats, no beatings, no abuse, nothing. He emerges from prison with a few gray hairs and life goes on.

When Trumbo’s friend battles and finally succumbs to lung cancer, there are no long-suffering scenes, making the film on the soft side.

Again, an observation of the type of film Trumbo is more than a complaint.

The scenes of Trumbo with his three children, as the film periodically ages the children with older actors, are touching; especially the scenes with his oldest daughter, Nikola, are sweet.

She grows up to be just like her father.

Trumbo earnestly explains to young Nikola why he is a communist and asks what she would do if someone else were without food; her response is to share, a simple, sweet scene.

Through a child’s eyes, the world is so innocent.

Trumbo returns to the Hollywood of old, clean, glamorous, and extravagant, both in the film and in its retro use of old footage.

It is a nonthreatening film that tells Dalton Trumbo’s story in a safe, thorough way.

I enjoyed it tremendously.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor-Bryan Cranston