Movie Review: Bombshell

Movie Review: Bombshell 


Based upon the accounts of several female employees at FOX News who in 2016 came forward about allegations of sexual harassment levied at then CEO Roger Ailes.


Charlize Theron plays journalist Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as journalist Gretchen Carlson, Margot Robbie as Kayla Pospisli and John Lithgow as Ailes. Also stars Alison Janney, Connie Britton, Malcolm McDowell and Kate McKinnon.


After watching this film, I watched a Megyn Kelly YouTube video where she talked to some of the people who were portrayed in the film about what it was really like. It does sound really sordid and leaves me thinking that director Jay Roach took too much cinematic license with this film.


It left me feeling that the film barely scratched the surface of the controversy. I am now interested to see the Russell Crowe mini-series based on Ailes.


Lithgow’s make-up transformation into Ailes is very convincing. Theron gives a very good impersonation of Kelly but I never felt that it got out of second gear. Kidman’s role is fairly limited and despite being the main complainant, she really doesn’t do much in this film. Robbie has the most difficult scenes in the movie but the seriousness of her situation is treated very breezily.


Given the subject matter, I thought it could have been realized better into a feature film.