Bombshell is a drama based on the true story of women working at Fox News in America who exposed network CEO Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie are the three women central to the story. All are fantastic, as evidenced by Oscar nominations for Theron (Best Actress) and Robbie (Best Supporting Actress) and Kidman managing to get through a whole film without her Australian accent popping out to say g’day.
I loved this film. It’s really great! And I didn’t look at my watch once, which is how I know I was completely engrossed. (This is my special, unique and definitely-not-had-by-anyone-else-before idea about how to measure whether a film is any good.)
John Lithgow is perfectly super creepy as Ailes and Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Rob Delaney and Connie Britton all give knock-out performances in smaller roles. And a treat for Australian viewers - actor brothers Josh Lawson and Ben Lawson as James and Lachlan Murdoch respectively.
The use of an English actor - Malcolm McDowell - to play Rupert Murdoch is about the only misstep in this film for me. The real Rupert’s accent is about 70% Australian and 30% American in my estimation and McDowell’s is 30% English, 30% American, 40% really bad Australian for a total of 100% jarringly bad. But it’s a small thing in an otherwise excellent film.
Bombshell opens on Thursday 16 January, runs for 109 minutes and is rated M. Trailer here.