Your patience with David Fincher's new biopic Mank will depend a lot on your interest in the history of classic Hollywood and the politics of pre-WWII America. Lucky for me, I have an interest in both but I am not sure the movie will be as engrossing to the broader audiences.
Perhaps, the film's fatal flaw is that its titular hero -- legendary screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz -- isn't a particularly compelling or charismatic one. Gary Oldman is a great actor, even a legendary one but he's miscast here -- far too old and one note -- for me, at least. Michael Stuhlbarg would have been perfect for this. Although, Oldman is very good at playing soused. We are all meant to understand that Mankiewicz was a genius screenwriter, and for fans of Citizen Kane that's clear, but the film simply repeatedly reinforces two character traits: his alcoholism and withering sarcasm.
Far more successful are the color characters who circle around him -- a note perfect Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies (the trophy wife of William Randolph Hearst), as well as Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer (who has a great, barnstorming monologue about the studios' relationship with the movies) and Charles Dance as an imposing Hearst. Tom Burke pops up occasionally, doing a slightly better than average impression of Orson Welles, but this film is less interested with Kane's iconic director-star, which I suppose is a virtue. Mank presupposes, as many critics have over the years, that it was the film's screenwriter who was the real brains behind its influential narrative.
Director David Fincher's reverence for Kane is clear. Beyond little specific cinematic nods, the film itself is impeccably crafted. It has been shot, gloriously, in the style of a studio picture of the era is portrays, and its firecracker screenplay, poignantly written by Fincher's late father, really captures the rat-a-tat style of classic Hollywood.
This is why the movie leaves me a bit torn and cold. Fincher is one our greatest directors and he has been sorely missed from movies since his last foray, the blockbuster Gone Girl. He is a masterful technician and his meticulousness always makes his films hard to ignore. But emotion has never necessarily been his strong suit, which is perhaps why his best films are either about stunted people (The Social Network) or are dense in plot (Zodiac).
In Mank, Seyfried does the best job of connecting but she's in the film for fleeting moments that get overwhelmed by its detours into sidebars on left vs. right politics of the era and behind the scenes studio backstabbing.
The film is clearly a labor or love -- and is likely a shoo-in for the Best Cinematography Academy Award -- but it suffers from comparison to the movie its nominally about the making of. Citizen Kane brilliantly charts the rise and fall of an innocent who turns corrupt but Mank's lead character never evolves much. He start the film as a stumbling drunk malcontent and finishes it that way too.
It makes for a movie that is not exactly boring but hardly exhilarating. Which is surprising from the director of such propulsive fare as Seven, The Game and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Ultimately, Mank is not the masterpiece I was hoping for -- but I am happy to have David Fincher back.
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