Mank

Directed by David Fincher, Mank follows Gary Oldman’s Herman J. Mankiewicz as he sets out to write the screenplay for what will eventually become Citizen Kane for Orson Welles (Tom Burke). It’s clear immediately that Mank benefits substantially from Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale’s flawless periodic-specific production design and Erik Messerschmidt’s striking black-and-white cinematography, as the movie is otherwise, for the most part, lacking in elements designed to wholeheartedly capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with Jack Fincher’s wordy screenplay generally emphasizing snappy, clever dialogue over fully-formed characters and a propulsive narrative. (And it doesn’t help, either, that the picture contains a couple of seriously underwhelming subplots, including (and especially) an ongoing and entirely tedious storyline revolving around the protagonist’s ill-fated exploits in local California politics.) There’s consequently little doubt that Mank grows less and less interesting as it (very slowly) progresses, particularly as it abandons its behind-the-scenes elements and essentially transforms into a tedious character study of a far-from-dynamic figure, with the admittedly strong performances ultimately rendered moot by a meandering, lackadaisical execution that paves the way for a distressingly underwhelming (and sporadically interminable) second half – which does, in the end, cement the film’s place a massive disappointment that could and should have been so much better.

** out of ****