While Stuck in Bed, a Screenwriter Creates His Masterpiece

Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman in "Mank" 
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

I realize that to say this is a cliché, but there isn’t any denying that Orson Welles’ 1941 film, “Citizen Kane,” is one of the greatest and most iconic movies ever made.  Between Welles’ groundbreaking direction, his majestic and heartrending performance, and a story about its main character’s American dream and the emptiness of excessiveness, Welles constructed a movie that, after almost 80 years since its release, never fails to leave the viewer in awe at its ambition.

Despite Welles’ name maybe being associated with this movie the most, “Citizen Kane” didn’t all spawn from his mind.  He had a great deal of help from screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, and his writing process is chronicled in director David Fincher’s biographical drama, “Mank,” an intriguing story of old Hollywood and the hurdles that Mankiewicz had to face in order to complete his work.

In 1940, RKO Pictures offers Orson Welles (Tom Burke) total creative control for his next movie, “Citizen Kane.”  He recruits the help of Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) to write the script, who’s recovering from a broken leg that he sustained in a car accident.  As Herman works to complete his screenplay on time, he will also have to deal with other issues that threaten to hinder his work.

Oldman provides a performance that’s both humorous in how his character handles tough situations with his wit, but also melancholic in how his relationships between him and the people with whom he works become more and more damaged.  It’s a role where Oldman presents the strain that his character experiences as he faces a time crunch.  He never goes overboard with displaying how stressed Herman begins to feel and doesn’t indulge too much in the clichés of characters who are writers, but instead shows an understated weariness that exhibits what his demons and the demanding nature of the work are doing to him. 

The film has a fine supporting cast, such as Lily Collins as Rita Alexander, Herman’s secretary; Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer, cofounder of MGM; Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg, a film producer; Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz, Herman’s wife; and Charles Dance as newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.  While all of these cast members do well in their roles, they either don’t have a lot of memorable material, or don’t have much screen time.  However, two cast members who are given the chance to make an impression are Amanda Seyfried as actress Marion Davies and Hearst’s mistress, and Tom Burke as Orson Welles.  Seyfried is given a couple of scenes with Oldman as their characters get to know each other, opening up a relationship that becomes more complicated as Herman nears the end of his script.  For Burke, the final confrontation between Orson and Herman simmers with tension as the two argue over writing credit, providing a scene that’s reminiscent of the Winklevoss twins’ intellectual-property lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network.”

The screenplay by Jack Fincher, who’s David’s father (he passed away in April 2003), has an intriguing similarity to the screenplay for “Citizen Kane,” in that it plays around with the chronology of the film’s events.  Just like how Mankiewicz’s screenplay goes back and forth between Kane’s life and the investigation that follows his passing, Fincher’s narrative transitions between Herman writing the screenplay and his years in Hollywood leading up to being offered the project.  In the scenes that take place in the past (that timeframe spans from 1933-1937), we’re given a detailed account of the events that surrounded Herman’s life, particularly his involvement in local politics and how it intertwines with his work in Hollywood.  It’s a refreshing change of pace of how, in a movie about the making of a movie, we don’t see something that’s just about the filmmaking process, but we also see an aspect of Hollywood that doesn’t seem like it’s explored too often in movies that take place in that location.

For the scenes that occur during Herman’s time writing “Citizen Kane,” they all take place in a secluded house, providing audiences with a feeling of how Herman must feel in having to stay in one place as he tries to recover from his injury and buckle down to get his work done.  With characters coming in and out of the house to check on his condition and to see how the screenplay is progressing, the amount of time that we spend in the house shows us the stress of Herman’s writing process and the pressure to finish his screenplay on time.

The score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who provided unforgettable scores for Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” and “The Social Network,” shows a new depth to their talent as they deliver a score that’s reminiscent of the style of classic Hollywood movies.  When you consider how modern the scores are for their previous three movies with Fincher, you won’t feel anything less than impressed with this switch their able to make.

“Mank” is Fincher’s first movie in six years, following “Gone Girl,” which means this is the longest wait that we’ve had between movies from him.  That wait was worth it to see Fincher’s behind-the-scenes view concerning a specific chapter of the making of “Citizen Kane.”  This movie doesn’t have the look or feel of Fincher’s previous films, but given the amount of time we waited for another one of his movies, it’s exciting to see him return with something that’s different.  The cinematography by Erik Messerschimdt, who provided the camerawork for several episodes of “Mindhunter” (a show where Fincher directed seven episodes) employs black-and-white photography, and when that’s paired with production design by Donald Graham Burt, who has collaborated with Fincher on five of his other movies, we have a film that evokes the spirit of Hollywood’s golden age.  Whether it be a studio lot, a film set, an Election Night party, or Hearst’s San Simeon mansion that recalls Kane’s cavernous mansion Xanadu, this movie immerses you in detailed environments both in and around Hollywood.

At one point in the movie, Herman says, “You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours.  All you can hope is to leave the impression of one.”  It’s safe to say that David and Jack Fincher have accomplished that for “Mank.”

Grade: A-