A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I was well aware that Dalton Trumbo had been blacklisted and that he had kept working using fronts and aliases but I didn’t know the full extent of it (For example, I didn’t know he actually spent some time in jail) and only therefore, it was a really interesting movie. It was also interesting to see that Trumbo, before he was blacklisted, was probably the most in-demand writer in Hollywood at the time and the Blacklist completely derailed his career when he was basically at the top of his game, which did remind me of what happened to Muhammad Ali. And, yet, Trumbo still managed to be productive in the US. while many blacklisted directors actually moved to Europe, even if it was to mass produce some garbage, and, at some point, he more or less managed to bring down the Blacklist system in the process. So, the material was actually quite fascinating but, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure about the approach they chose. Indeed, even if most of the characters kept saying that the situation was really serious, even downright dramatic, the tone remained actually really light. Sure, it might have made the whole thing easier to swallow but I’m not sure if it was so much more entertaining this way and, above it really undermined the impact of this tale. In a similar way, even though I did like Bryan Cranston’s performance, it did turn Dalton Trumbo into some funny eccentric guy but it felt rather reductive to me. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.