Vice (DVD)

Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk, LisaGay Hamilton, Jesse Plemons, Bill Camp, Don McManus, Lily Rabe, Shea Whigham

Director: Adam McKay

Welsh-born Bale, deservedly Oscar nominated for Best Actor, is near unrecognisable after gaining considerable weight to play Dick Cheney who, we are informed, 'quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W Bush'.

Given the all-too-prevalent oddball activities of the current haystack-haired occupant of the White House, writer-director - and equally well-deserved Oscar-nominee McKay (even more entertainingly cynical here than with his previous picture The Big Short) earns additional praise for his cruelly satirical portrait of Cheney.

Needless to say, the cheerfully-conniving Cheney emerges as the archetypal all-American political hero who also doubles effectively as a successful industrial CEO during the unfortunate Clinton presidency...

It's Bale's film and he carries it with mesmerising force, well aided and abetted by a gallery of fine portrayals led by rightful Oscar-nominee Adams as Cheney's sympathetic, career-catalysing wife.

Alan Frank

USA 2018. UK Distributor: entertainmentOne. Colour.
126 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 18 Jun 2019