Good Night, And Good Luck
This telling of the showdown between CBS journalist Edward Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy comes off as a full wellful of missed opportunities, due mostly to the slipshod directing by George Clooney and the pedestrian TV-movie style script by Clooney and Grant Heslov. Murrow and the others come off as people you only hear about in a good light, and the script gives the actors nothing to work with as far as making their characters fully-rounded human beings. Clooney’s pacing also leaves something to be desired, as even with a 90-minute running time, the film wears out its welcome awful fast, pretty much taking the viewer immediately out of it with the opening montage of random characters speaking while jazzy music plays and the opening titles are slowly trotted out. The pacing goes downhill even more during Clooney’s “segue” portions of the movie, showing a black female jazz singer belting out various tunes while we see some quick cuts of characters scurrying around the office, in order to show us the “passage of time”. The film easily could have benefitted from having 10 to 15 minutes trimmed out for these pacing issues. It’s also funny how Clooney basically dramatizes only the Murrow and CBS side of the story, while McCarthy is only seen in real-life newsclips for extended periods of time when in reality, he’s probably the most interesting character. Nearly all scenes of the film take place in interior locations, giving the viewer a claustrophobic feeling that everything was shot on a soundstage. The film also lacks closure or a payoff scene for the most part, not making us exactly sure what was the character’s immediate or eventual fates. The plus side is that the black and white cinematography looks good, and Clooney does seem to have a way with actors. Strathairn gives a fine, solid, performance as Murrow, even if his best acting comes when he’s on TV, no doubt repeating Murrow’s original words verbatim. We don’t quite feel like we get to know the man, but Strathairn makes him easy to root for regardless. As for the rest of the cast, Clooney gives his usual sardonic acting display, but points do get scored for Jeff Daniels as a corporate suit and Frank Langella in the Jason Robards role, and especially for Ray Wise as the local CBS anchor with Communist ties. Wise has been a solid character actor for many years now, it’s a shame he doesn’t get more recognition. I was a little taken aback with Downey and Clarkson’s characters. They both seem to be in Murrow’s inner circle, but play no role in the main story, even though we get many scenes of them at home together commenting on what Murrow is doing. Funny how we never see any of Murrow’s family or personal life, but these two minor characters let it all hang out, if only to have Clooney draw a lame parallel with their subplot late in the movie. In closing, the true definitive movie about The McCarthy Era in America is yet to be made, though Strathairn is absolutely my choice to play Murrow if that ever happens…
5/10