” You talk like a RADICAL, but you live like a RICH GUY…”
Based on Bruce Cook’s book ~ Dalton Trumbo ~ and brought to life by Director JAY ROACH ~ the man who has brought to life such illustrious characters as Austin Powers, Greg Focker and Jack Burnes ~comes the true-life story of one of the BIG SCREENS most prolific writers and his entrapment in the backlash of the political correctness and blacklist’s that plagued 1947’s HOLLYWOOD… THIS IS TRUMBO!
Living the life of fame and fortune as one of the BEST SCREENPLAY WRITERS IN HOLLYWOOD, Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) has the world on a string. That is until he, his wife Cleo (Diane Lane), and many fellow writers and actors become the target of many of Hollywood’s elite ~ including Gossip Columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and President of SAG, John Wayne (David James Elliott), and Studio Exec Louis B. Mayer (Richard Portnow), by alerting the world of their COMMUNIST party affiliation, opening up a menagerie of betrayals and putting them and their fellow communist cohorts on THE BLACKLIST.
Bound and determined to not let his Communistic views destroy his family – or his career – Trumbo sets out to keep writing – but under assumed names. When the new film ROMAN HOLIDAY – which is supposedly written by writer Ian McClellan Hunter – but which was actually written by Dalton Trumbo – is nominated for an Academy Award and wins, Trumbo figures out a new way to take on THE SYSTEM.
When actor and producer Kirk Douglas (Dean O’Gorman) finds out that Trumbo may still be making creative masterpieces undercover, he decides to reach out to Dalton in hopes that he will take on a new project of his ~ it’s the story of a man TAKING ON THE WORLD ~ SPARTICUS…
As Trumbo continues to defy the people in HOLLYWOOD who want his communist head on a platter, it seems that their BLACKLIST, and the defiance of his creative genius, is turning out to make them all look like laughing stocks to the civilized world…
I give TRUMBO a rating of MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN: Cranston’s portrayal of TRUMBO is unquestionably Oscar nod worthy ~ no remnants of Walter White here ~ and kudos to the rest of the cast for their stellar performances too ~ from Louis CK playing Trumbo’s friend and fellow writer Alan Hird, to Mirren’s snobbish portray as Hooper, to St. Louis’s own John Goodman playing Studio Exec Frank King ~ to Christian Berkel’s portrayal of Director Otto Preminger ~ each and every player in this film is absolutely FABULOUS. What made this film even more intriguing for me as a viewer, was the way it showed the inter-workings of Hollywood in the 40’s and 50’s ~ which is apparently where the title for the 1966 film ~ THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY came from…J Make no mistake about it ~ if you have the opportunity to head to a theater near you to catch Cranston as TRUMBO – you have to make it happen – as this is one film you must catch before award season hits…
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 