Christian Bale goes all in for a bold but confused portrait of politics’ biggest Dick.

I doubt you need me to point this out, but we’re in a bit of a political hole right now. Whatever country you’re from or side of the schism you land on, it’s hard not to look at the state of it all at the moment with anything but utter dismay.

But, believe it or not kids, we’ve been here before. With the power of the internet and the omnipresence of social media plugging us directly into the darkness in an unprecedented way, it’s hard to imagine the world in a worse condition than it is right now. Yet it has - and it really wasn’t all that long ago.

In many ways, the early 2000s were as tumultuous and uncertain - perhaps even more so - than they are right now and while there’s a temptation to look at a time before some bright spark allowed the President of the United States to have his own Twitter account with some form of nostalgia, it should be avoided at all costs.

As we hit 2001 and a certain George W. Bush took office, so began eight years of war, fear, terror and lies that would have a knock-on effect for many years to come. With the truth behind this administration’s deceptions gradually seeping out over the years, it was rapidly becoming clear that one man sat at the eye of the shitstorm.

During his time as George Bush Jr’s Vice/puppeteer, Dick Cheney would oversee Operation Desert Storm, a U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, and the War on Terror, as well as the opening of Guantanamo Bay and a controversial support of “advanced interrogation techniques” on terror suspects.

To call his term turbulent would be an understatement; yet, if nothing else, the man’s calm and calculated exterior in the face of his heinous actions makes Dick Cheney a fascinating –  albeit despicable – protagonist. But to pick Cheney apart and tell his story in a palatable way takes a special kind of storyteller and in Adam McKay we have just that. However, can the director do for Dick Cheney here what he did for the property crash in The Big Short?

In the lead up to the 2000 U.S. presidential election, unassuming Washington bureaucrat Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) is picked by George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell) to be his unlikely Republican running mate. No stranger to politics, Cheney eyes an unprecedented opportunity to wield power from the shadows and as Bush wins, he begins to use his newfound influence to quietly reshape the country and the world in ways still felt today.

In a career trajectory that has been as unassuming as it is dramatic, Adam McKay has gone from the offbeat comedy stylings of Ron Burgundy to the shady, world-altering politics of Dick Cheney in a relatively short space of time. For a guy who cut his directing teeth on Will Ferrell comedy vehicles to suddenly dive into the murky depths of finance and politics may seem bizarre, yet the tonal shift has been as quietly successful as the man at the centre of his latest effort.

Rather than ditch his comedy roots altogether for this new direction, McKay has instead utilised his unique humour to wade into some of the densest subject matter around in a way that’s both engaging and accessible. As his big dramatic breakthrough, The Big Short first appeared like an impenetrable retelling of the 2008 property crash, yet what transpired was a weighty and complex subject broken down perfectly into easily consumable and thoroughly understandable pieces.

Taking a similar approach here, McKay tackles the misadventures of Cheney and the Bush administration with a level of flippancy and humour that belies the brevity of the subject. However, the results this time around aren’t quite so satisfying.

The key ingredient that allowed The Big Short to resonate so successfully was not only McKay’s keen eye for easily-relatable humour amidst a whirlwind of financial jargon, but also his knack for hitting just the right emotional beats to keep things engaging. Unfortunately, it’s this emotional core that McKay omits from Vice and one that leaves the film bereft of heart.

The Big Short certainly wasn’t left wanting on the unsavoury character front, yet hidden beneath the pile of scammers, chancers and ne’er-do-wells were genuine, relatable figures that helped drive the film’s message home. Conversely, there’s not one key character within Vice that warrants a lick of our sympathy.

Ruthless, scheming, and wantonly villainous, Dick Cheney himself is an incredibly difficult man to empathise with, which may well be true to life, but nonetheless leaves Vice lacking an emotional grounding. Of course, not all protagonists need to be likeable, yet there must be something there, either within their character or those around them, that allows for at least some degree of emotional purchase.

Having someone for Cheney to bounce off on a moral level would certainly help in this respect, yet every periphery character buzzing around him is built up as either a bumbling cretin or a horrendous, scheming villain. To which, McKay finds no room for perspective from any other invested party or even the many victims of Cheney and company’s highly questionable shenanigans, outside of a cursory glance or two.

As was the case with The Big Short, Adam McKay utilises a variety of unique narrative devices to communicate Vice’s complex subject matter. While it doesn’t come close to the ingenuity of The Big Short, Vice breaks down its heavier moments through fourth-wall breaks, freeze frames, mid-film credits, bizarre asides about penis puppetry, and brash editing choices to make it a biopic experience quite unlike anything else out there.

However, chip away at these quirks and Vice is exposed as something far more facile. With any biopic it can be hard to avoid simply recounting real life events like a glorified re-enactment and while Vice certainly offers an interesting slant on Cheney and his nefarious actions (one that’s more than happy to embellish the truth when necessary), it’s hard to avoid how ordinary the film is at its core.

Unlike The Big Short, McKay regularly struggles to balance drama and comedy as Vice bounces backwards and forwards erratically in time and tone. Pinging about like this certainly keeps us on our toes throughout, yet its disjointed nature offers little of substance to hold onto, resulting in many of McKay’s intended satirical blows missing their mark.

In many ways, Vice wants to have its cake and eat it. On one hand, McKay tries everything he can to portray Cheney as this treacherous, devil-like figure at the centre of a clandestine political spider’s web, yet simultaneously paints him as a tragic hero - a Macbeth figure complete with his very own Lady Macbeth in Lynne Cheney. It results in a fun but odd Shakespearian tone throughout that even leads to one particularly unconventional bedroom scene in which the couple indulge in some rather steamy blank verse under the sheets.

Vice wants to hate Cheney and urges us to hate him along with it, yet any attempt to remotely humanise him undercuts this, especially when there’s very little behind his cold, calculated portrayal to root for.

Which of course brings us to the portrayal itself with Christian Bale once again showing off his chameleon-like abilities to disappear entirely into Dick Cheney. For all of Vice’s faults, there’s no denying just how impressive Bale’s performance is as he completely melts away into the role to the point that you’ll genuinely forget its him there behind the makeup.

There are few more committed actors in the game today than Christian Bale and, true to form, he goes all-in on Dick with the look, pin-point mannerisms, and a quiet but deeply unnerving intensity that simultaneously gets under Cheney’s skin while creeping under yours.

There’s certainly a charm to the performance but it’s not one you’ll feel particularly comfortable with. While the way Cheney wormed his way into the heart of U.S. politics is admittedly impressive in its utter barefaced audacity, Bale plays it like the devil himself, warranting nothing but distain for the man by the end.

By his side throughout, Amy Adams goes toe-to-toe with Bale to deliver one of the most assured performances of her career, taking Lynne Cheney from what could’ve been a side character to something far more powerful. Of course, as the film’s Lady Macbeth, she’s on the shoulder of her husband the entire time and, as much as Dick sees himself as the ultimate political puppet master, Adams’ commanding turn has Lynne with a firm grip on the strings as well. It’s certainly not a flashy performance but it’s every bit as influential and impressive as Bale’s as she absolutely refuses to disappear behind his rather large shadow.

Probably the biggest problem with the way the characters are presented is that, despite how incredible the makeup and prosthetics are, they’re almost too distracting. On their own, Adams and Bale’s transformative performances would be enough, but add them to a smorgasbord of big names caricaturing many of the era’s key political figures and it all becomes a bit overwhelming.

Outside of our central power couple, the performances are something of a mixed bag. While he’s always worth the price of admission alone, Sam Rockwell plays George W. the only way he knows how - by being Sam Rockwell - which, while undoubtedly entertaining in its own boneheaded kind of way, never truly clicks and feels far too brief to fully satisfy. Similarly, Steve Carell’s take on Donald Rumsfeld is fun but it’s hard to get away from the fact that he looks and sounds like Brick Tamland finally broke bad.

Surrounding them is an extended cast that ranges from Tyler Perry’s surprisingly affecting Colin Powell to Eddie Marsan’s slimy Paul Wolfowitz to LisaGay Hamilton’s limited but bright role as Condoleezza Rice. They certainly operate well together but, taken as a whole, the ensemble make Vice feel more akin to an extended Saturday Night Live sketch than a viable dramatic feature.

However, this is all mere set dressing for the Christian Bale show as he takes a leaf out of his character’s book to stealthily sneak up and grab both the movie and our attention in a vice-like grip. As the film thrashes for its life in his bloated hands, Bale’s all-encompassing performance smooths over some of Vice’s rough edges and, while it doesn’t completely absolve it of all sin, it’s more than enough to put it above the many biopic also-rans out there.

The Big Short was always going to be a tough act to follow for Adam McKay. But, while Vice is a far less satisfying watch than its predecessor, there’s still much to admire in what the film is trying to achieve by simultaneously shining a light and throwing some shade on such a disreputable political era. With Christian Bale’s absorbing chameleon-like performance behind the wheel and McKay’s typically off-beat sense of humour on directions, Vice is a bold concoction of real life drama and glib comedy that doesn’t always meld, yet feels like a necessary slap to the face of Dick Cheney and an administration that will go down as one of the most dangerous, disastrous, and dishonest in U.S. presidential history…well until the next one I guess.