395. Mank; movie review

 

MANK

Cert 12A

131 mins

BBFC advice: Contains infrequent strong language, moderate sex references, suicide references

You only have to look at the list of critically acclaimed films about Hollywood to understand how self-absorbed movie people are.

In recent years, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, La La Land And The Artist have been hugely overrated.

Mank is another which has found itself among the Oscar chatter but is almost impossible to enjoy without detailed inside knowledge.

This surprises me because David Fincher has already proved in The Social Network that he can very effectively develop a real-life story while giving the viewer the essential background to its characters.

Not so during Mank - a biopic based on the screenwriter Heman Mankiewicz who wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane with Orson Welles.

The movie flits around the 1930s when Mankiewicz was making a mark in Hollywood in more ways than one.

Yes, he was known for his writing, having been a critic, but he was equally notorious in higher circles for his behaviour at social events.

He could be a wonderful wit and raconteur or say something which could be horrendously indelicate.

Gary Oldman plays Mankiewicz, laid up in bed after suffering a broken leg in a car accident and consequently forced to dictate the Citizen Kane script to his secretary (Lily Collins).

She recognises that Charles Foster Kane has similarities to William Randolph Hearst, one of America's most powerful media moguls.

This sparks a shift in the movie back ten years to when he and actress Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried) are acquainted and she introduces him to Hearst (Charles Dance), her benefactor and lover.

He likes Mankiewicz and introduces him to his social circle which includes authoritarian studio boss LB Mayer (Arliss Howard).

The movie then explores the power games of Hollywood and brings in parallels to the rise of Hitler in Germany.

Meanwhile, Mankiewicz dissolves into a struggle with alcohol which affects all around him especially his wife (Tuppence Middleton) who is known to all as 'poor Sarah'.

I was aware of the characters in Mank but I have to confess I needed extra reading to understand what I had just seen.

Mrs White had no such prior knowledge and was so completely confused that she gave up on it after 30 minutes.

This is what happens when movies go straight to the small screen. If they don't resonate quickly people simply switch off.

Indeed, I'd be surprised if Mank managed to maintain attention with the majority of those who try it on Netflix.

That said, the movie looked good in its steely monochrome and Oldman's acting was exceptional but it is the revelling in Hollywood history which will delight the folk who cannot see further than Sunset Boulevard.

Reasons to watch: Great performance by Gary Oldman

Reasons to avoid: Presumes far too much knowledge

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Mankiewicz had been the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the drama critic for The New York Times and the first regular drama critic at The New Yorker.

The final word: "Herman Mankiewicz: "I’m particularly furious at the incredibly insolent description of how Orson wrote his masterpiece. The fact is that there isn’t one single line in the picture that wasn’t in writing—writing from and by me—before ever a camera turned.”

 
 

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