Citizen Kane is largely considered the greatest film of all time and I can certainly agree with that. This film sort of details how the screenplay come about.
Herman Mankewicz (Gary Oldman) is an alcoholic, washed out once celebrated screenwriter for MGM though he loathes Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard) with a passion. He meets the lovely Marion Davies (a surprisingly great Amanda Seyfried) who is in love with William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance), the newspaper mogul. The film then proceeds through various flashbacks including the election of John Merriam and Upton Sinclair for Congress and how the studio manipulates the election and Mank, as he insists on being called, is furious with how the situation was handled.
And then the screenplay is finished and it mirrors Hearst's life so much that lawsuits are threatened left and right, from Mank's younger brother, Joe (Tom Pelphrey), Marion, and even Mank's long suffering wife, called Poor Sara throughout (Tuppence Middleton) beg him to change everything but he refuses and the wunderkind Orson Welles (Tom Burke) likes it even though he balks when Mank wants the credit.
While this film is flashback heavy and the propaganda film probably deserve its own film, it is still very well done, with brilliant cinematography in moody black and white, flashbacks to the classic that is based on and Oldham manages to convince everyone that he's still in his forties, when he's actually over sixty. But he's excellent and Seyfried is pitch perfect in her smaller role. And you do manage to feel as though you're transported back to 1940 which is no easy feat. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-Lily Collins provides good support as one of Mank's two secretaries whose husband is fighting over in Europe.
-The ending notes should have been in a different font color as they were difficult to read in white.
-Also, if someone wants to commit suicide, you should take the gun, not just the bullets.
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