Bombshell

A strange and puzzling take on the Fox News scandal of Roger Aisles. At times it doesn't know if it trying to make Megyn Kelly a hero or a villain in her taking down of Roger Aisles for Sexual Harassment. There are definitely women that the film takes aim at, in particular Judge Jeanine who still defends Aisles to this day. It attempts to bring Gretchen Carlson to the forefront of the movement where she rightfully belongs but then falls into the trap that followed actual events where bombshell Kelly became the big hero who took him down. Charlize Theron puts in a wonderful performance for her role as Megyn Kelly and at times makes us wonder if she really cared about the women. But most of the time it feels like she is more interested in self preservation and how she is perceived than whether she is doing the right thing. Her husband puts up more righteous indignation about what is happening to them than she does. As one thinks about it, it almost feels like mansplaining in a film designed to show the problems with the old boy mentality. Margot Robbie plays a character who is a conglomerate of 3 different women's accounts of their dealings with Aisles and Fox News. She is the audiences first hand account of the harassment that women experienced at the hands of Fox that turns her from a dopey eyed party line toting to a disenfranchised cynic. They also randomly place a closeted lesbian democrat in the Fox news room played by Kate McKinnon. If this was an attempt to make it look like there are problematic people on both sides of the isle, it lands flat because this character is obviously made up. Nicole Kidman also puts in an interesting performance as Gretchen Carlson where they cannot seem to decide if she is a conniving opportunist or a genuine whistle-blower. The one aspect that it does get across that is by no way subtle is what the news is selling to the viewers and what the viewers want. Sex. It is interesting to look at what the film is trying to say. It almost comes across as if it doesn't matter in the #metoo era what happens because the viewers will feign interest but want sex sold to them at any cost. 

This film is a jumble of a messy plot and good performances. It is interesting to see what happened with the downfall of a media mogul but there are too many issues with the messaging. This makes it a C- disappointment.