Cinephile № 764 “Vice”

“An Opportunity Man,” a review of “Vice” by Nathan H. Box

Recommendation: 4/5 Stars, SHOWTIME

Director: Adam McKay, Writer: Adam McKay, Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell

Plot: “The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.” -IMBD

Review: “Behind every good man is a good woman” is how the old saying goes. From where I sit, I don’t know if I would call Dick Cheney a “good man.” With that said, the woman standing behind the future Vice President of the United States, Lynne Cheney, was the driving force behind the power he assumed. It was the pressure she applied that forced him to be a better man.

Adam McKay who directed “The Big Short” about the 2008 financial crisis opens this story on a young Dick Cheney running line in Wyoming. After flunking out of Yale, Cheney has returned home. We find a man who drinks too much and cares too little for his future. With Lynne Cheney at his side, it is her pushing and prodding that begins to right the ship. In the blink of an eye, a man with no direction is turned into a man of opportunity. With this change, comes an unquenchable lust for power. We are also afforded an opportunity to…