Bombshell
This article contains mentions of sexual assault and harassment.
This movie is hard to watch. And not just for the reasons you would think either. Of course it’s hard to see the women in this film be treated in the most degrading, horrifying ways by these rich white men in power. John Lithgow does an admirable job of being deplorable and disgusting in the worst ways I can imagine. There are no sexually explicit scenes in this movie, but what we do see is more than enough to understand the horror of being in any kind of situation similar to these women.
We hear three women’s stories throughout this film, two based on the real-life stories of Fox reporters Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, played by Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie’s character gives a fictional depiction of what happened to many young women who worked at Fox over the years.
This film makes it really hard to like Megyn Kelly, I’ll be honest. And it’s not exactly a cinch to have positive feelings towards Robbie’s character, Kayla, either. They are staunchly right-wing Republicans. They work for Fox, so I suppose this shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. I just didn’t think it would be part of the film. But I think that is honestly to this film’s credit. I don’t like a lot of the things that Kelly and Kayla have to say in this film, because they’re borderline racist or discriminatory and honestly not things I remotely agree with. But none of that changes the stories of these women and the fact that they deserve justice for what happens to them.
I guess that’s partly why this film is such a compelling story. Because the real story isn’t something you could make up. I think the last thing people expected was for a bunch of right-wing conservative women at Fox News (and affiliates) to break open a sexual harassment and assault scandal this huge. But it’s such a step in the right direction. The truth is, regardless of party line or political motivations, no woman deserves to be treated the way so many women were treated at Fox.
Gretchen Carlson, played by Nicole Kidman in the film, is an amazingly likeable character though, I have to say. At almost every moment she’s on screen (despite Kidman’s performance being mediocre at best, if I’m honest), I just want to cheer her on, to give her a high five, to scream ‘you go girl’ at her. Or ‘fuck the patriarchy’ or something equally empowering. She’s such an inspiration in this film. It’s so hard to speak out, especially without knowing for sure whether anyone will come forward and back you up. Whether anyone else is willing to be as vulnerable as you. And it doesn’t matter that her story isn’t as heart breaking as the other two. Perhaps it makes it a little easier for her to come forward, but she does it knowing that there are others who have more to say and have suffered worse than she has. She does it for those women.
Those women include Megyn Kelly and Kayla, who both struggle with the decision of whether they should come forward or not. Kelly, a high-ranking member at Fox News (prime time news anchor, I believe), is being told from all sides that she has to speak out in support of the man who abused her, and her refusal is not welcomed or looked on kindly. Kayla is dealing with the harassment and coercion of the accused man as all of this is happening, and she feels like she has no one to talk to. When she tries to talk to a friend, the friend says she doesn’t want to hear about it.
Trigger warning: the following scene discusses the specifics of an incident of sexual assault.
Things get so bad for her that she feels very much like her only option is to come forward and be honest about what’s happened to her. The above scene is the heart breaking moment when she explains what happened to friend, and her friend is suitably horrified and feels awful for telling her to be quiet about it. It’s such a raw moment, hard not to cry as you watch the two friends sobbing together on the phone.
This film is hard to watch. I know people who have been through similar things, and unfortunately they’re not few and far between. This story ends as happily as it can, but it also reminds you that this happens everywhere all the time and it’s not over. We’ve only just started scratching the surface of fighting against this kind of thing. What this film also reminded me of though was that we can support each other, better and sooner than these women did. We can believe survivors when they talk about their experiences. And just as is shown in this film, and in the real-life story, that can do a lot. So yeah, it’s hard to watch, but if you think it’s something you might be able to handle, I recommend it. It’s a powerful story about strong, amazing survivors telling their stories.
Bombshell is available to stream on Amazon Prime in Australia, Starz in the UK and Amazon Prime and Hulu in the US. It’s available to rent or buy everywhere on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
