Trumbo

We've seen too many films based on true stories that ranges from politics to sports to musical band icons to actors to dangerous situations. The list is endless, because we and Hollywood have this fascination with fact-based films. Now we have "Trumbo" to throw into the mix to get us caught up in, yet another, fact-based film. One thing about this movie, the subject matter is certainly as original as any film could be out there.

In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was Hollywood's top screenwriter until he and other artists, namely writer, Arlen Hird (Louis C.K.), Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg) and writer, Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk) were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. This true story recounts how Dalton used words and wit to win two Academy Awards and expose the absurdity and injustice under the blacklist, which entangled everyone from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) to John Wayne (David James Elliott), Kirk Douglas (Dean O'Gorman) and Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel). Even producer, Frank King (John Goodman) was threatened to dump writer Trumbo from his production company or 'else', which he responded in a 'I don't care' attitude. This is one man's struggle and reinventing himself at a time when the societal fear was running rampant.

Others to round out the cast are John Getz as Sam Word, Diane Lane as Cleo Trumbo, Dalton's wife, Roger Bart as Buddy Ross, Elle Fanning as Niki Trumbo, Dalton's daughter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Virgil, Stephen Root as Hymie King, Richard Portnow as Louis B. Mayer and James DuMont as J. Parnell Thomas.

This was interestingly directed by Jay Roach ("Zoo Radio" '90, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" '97, "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" '99, "Mystery, Alaska" '99, "Meet the Parents" 2000, "Austin Powers in Goldmember" '02, "Meet the Fockers" '04, "Earth to America" (TV movie) '05, "Recount" (TV movie) '08, "Dinner for Schmucks" '10, "Game Change" (TV movie) '12, "The Campaign" '12). I say interestingly because if you'll notice this filmmaker's resume, most of his experience is in the genre of comedy. Not that there isn't any humorous moments in this, however this is definitely a drama. I'm not sure why the producers risked Roach to such an undertaking, but after seeing this film, Roach proved, in spades, that he was more than up to the task of this script. These characters came alive in just about every scene, albeit the actors are consummate, but this still takes a keen director to pull this off. It was written by John McNamara based on the book, "Dalton Trumbo" by Bruce Cook. This writer has a ton of experience, but all of it is a combination of a few TV movies and episodic TV. Considering this is his first theatrical feature film, this script was amazing. If this is his first big-screen venture, I surely can't wait to see how cutting edge his writing is, say ten years down the road. There were a small amount of descepancies in this, but all in all, this storyline was spot on and the acting, specifically by Cranston in the title role was worth the price of admission. Cranston will undoubtedly be nominated come Oscar time.

As aforementioned, this storyline is certainly original considering all the other films based on true stories, because when we go see movies, and since a good deal of them are based on true events, it would be frosting on the cake to see an extremely interesting storyline which "Trumbo" certainly is.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                 Rated: R                                   124mins.