Preface: I am not very familiar with the events surrounding the true story behind this film. I have heard of Donald Trump, Megyn Kelly and Rupert Murdoch but had not heard of the other characters.
I was surprised to learn that Bombshell ran under two hours. Nothing against shorter movies, I had just assumed that it would be longer. And I don’t really understand why it wasn’t.
Bombshell is about three women working at Fox, Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) and the abuse that they face at the hands of Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) and the men at the Fox News office.
The film mostly follows Megyn Kelly, opening with her preparing for a debate with Donald Trump, and focusing on the fallout of that event. I think that this is a good place to start and to enter the viewer into the world that is Fox News and all the commonplace goings-on in the company and how it functions. However, I think after this the movie should have shifted focus to another character, that of Gretchen Carlson.
I found Gretchen to be the most interesting character in the film, and the most important. She is the one that starts the chain of events that brings about the downfall of Ailes, and has seemingly the most action in the film. Kayla is an important character as she shows how extreme the sexual harassment was, as there was not this form of harassment to Megyn or Gretchen during the time frame of the film, or at least not that was shown. Megyn is an important character as she was the main turning point that swung the lawsuit in the women’s favour, and being the biggest name in the case.
However, a large amount of this movie is Megyn debating with her team whether to speak out about the harassment in her past, and her deciding to wait for more women to speak out. The movie spends a lot of time with Megyn, and spends less time with the other two women.
I think this greatly hinders Gretchen’s character. While the reveal of Gretchen’s purposeful firing, and the fact that she had played Ailes was fun, I feel that it would have been more rewarding to see those plans take shape and been worked through. Instead of being a surprise to the audience, I feel that we should have been there, and seen the ideas form and be implemented. And then we can watch with glee as Ailes stumbles into every step that Gretchen and the lawyers devise for him. Instead, we are unsure how exactly the lawsuit is progressing and are waiting along with Megyn, which is accurate to the character, but does not make for the best viewing experience. I feel like the movie greatly misses out what could be a great legal war between Ailes and Gretchen.
Unfortunately for the movie, I think that this could have been an easy fix. The film could have just added a couple more scenes focusing on the lawsuit and Gretchen, and a lot of these problems are remedied. I don’t think that any portion should be cut down, as I feel that each character was given the weight that they deserved, outside of Gretchen. And since the film is less than two hours long, this extra length can be added on without becoming overlong.
I can understand if information was not available for that portion of the story, but that does not excuse the movie. It could be the best they could have done with the information available, but it still remains a flaw in the movie. More Gretchen would have given the movie more purpose, drive and action, and, ultimately, would have made a better movie.
The Sensations of Storytelling 