Boring

Rating: 5/10 (30 April 2006)

Just really dull. Long extended scenes of exposition, talking heads yakking from the screen. David Strathairn got the nuances of Edward R. Murrow down just right but just missed the essence. (Or it may be that my impression of Murrow, being 40 years old, is flawed.) The entire film contradicts the point being made in the speech that bookends the story: TV, by its very nature cannot be a medium of extended, thoughtful debate. The "debates" in the movie were all just one talking head pontificating, and then sitting down for the bloviater on the other side to spew. The debate between Murrow and Senator McCarthy is the centerpiece of the story, but there is no give and take between them; they don't even appear to be in the same room. Some other quibbles: All of the humor in the story falls flat; I wonder how many people got the interview of Liberace. What was the point of the romance between the Robert Downey Jr. character and the Patricia Clarkson character? Finally, some of the themes and even the dialog ("They were on our side.") were stolen from The Front, a much better movie. I know, I know, it's an "homage."