Film Review: ‘Vice’ Proves It’s Okay to Laugh at Dick Cheney

Submitted by PatrickMcD on December 27, 2018 - 5:49pm

CHICAGO – “Vice” is an occasionally very funny attempt to demystify the life and legacy of former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Using some of the same gimmicks and narrative trickery he employed to great effect in “The Big Short,” writer/director Adam McKay goes deep into the weeds to try to explain how Cheney made it to the second highest office in the land.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Packing on 40 extra pounds and some remarkable makeup, Christian Bale has Cheney’s mannerisms and characterization down pat. Amy Adams is the Lady Macbeth-like figure Lynne Cheney, whose own strength of will and ambition force her husband to get whipped into shape, mentally at least although never physically. But for my money, Steve Carell steals the show as George W. Bush-era Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Playing the longtime Washington figure as a refugee from “Anchorman” or “Animal House” is an inspired choice and he gets a lot of the films best laughs.

In between we see Cheney as the political operative who flunked out of Yale, a congressional intern attaching himself to Rumsfeld – as he ascends In the Nixon White House – and then the two of them running things in the Ford administration. After a break retreating in the Carter years, they both rise again with Reagan and later both Bush presidencies.

“Vice” opened everywhere on December 25th. Featuring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Bill Camp, Lily Rabe, Tyler Perry, Alfred Molina. Written and directed by Adam McKay. Rated “R”