J.P. Devine Movie Review: ‘Bombshell’

In Jay Roach’s (“Trumbo” “Game Change,” ) new film “Bombshell,” which spells out yet another exposé about the shattering of right-wing Fox News, and the fall of its CEO Roger Ailes (played here this time by John Lithgow) the first thing you’ll notice are the blondes.

There are blondes everywhere; in the halls, the cubicles, the closets and cafes, cabs, and elevators, especially the elevators. This is where Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie find themselves alone like the three witches in Macbeth, each with a ladle to stir the boiling pot with. Take notice, these aren’t your ordinary casting call blondes. Don your sunglasses, the brightest of the bright are here to dazzle and amaze.

Each of these skirted stiletto donning blondes throbs with secrets that can topple and dismantle the shaky pillars of media and yet and none will speak. Wait for it.

This much we know.

The story is all about the fall of the Quasimodo in the bell tower of Fox, the network’s corpulent predator in charge, Roger Ailes, and how Roger loved and manipulated his toybox of blondes.

His wife Beth (Connie Britton of “American Horror Story”) is blonde, his front desk guardian (Holland Taylor) is blonde. Okay, we get it. But we’re here for the “Bombshell.” Hold your breath, it’s coming.

We get Fox News host Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and an “everywoman” called Kayla (a stunning, amazing scene stealer Margot Robbie). In fact, all the ladies who launch the coup, are stunning and amazing, including SNL’s brilliant comedian Kate McKinnon. As usual, she is enormously misused.

But it’s Kidman who is the kitchen knife kept in the freezer all night, and Theron the razor. Don’t let us forget the naive climber, Robbie, whose wet eyes eventually dry and harden.

Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd’s job, which he does well, is composed of a good deal of following Roach’s clever close ups of shocked and embarrassed participants, and some stunning up front tracking shots where some of the blondes fill us in on the details, in case you’ve been distracted by the Harvey Weinstein debacle. This is sexual politics and Roach is adept at both.

“Bombshell” is serious and currently unwrapping #MeToo extravaganza, but woven into all the moldy manipulation of serious, well-educated and talented women, who only wanted their rightful place in the glowing light of the news world, are chunks of “Madmen” comedy and great writing.

My, we’ve come a long way from Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women.” But we can see that Alcott’s “Jo” is alive and well in the towers of media mayhem.

J.P. Devine, of Waterville, is a former stage and screen actor.

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