The Cold War cast a new light on American communists. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was one of them. In 1947 he led a fight with the Hollywood system, picketing for better wages. Trumbo was famous for Roman Holiday and several films of his day, a father of three, and husband to Cleo (Diane Lane).
Trumbo doesn’t just write happy Hollywood endings. He believes in them. Actress and gossip-columnist, Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) wanted to take him down. And she does. With his rival John Wayne (David James Elliot) and some studio head threats, Trumbo receives an official subpoena for supposedly using his scripts to influence people to communism. Soon after, Trumbo and the “Hollywood ten” are blacklisted. No studio will hire them.
But that doesn’t stop Trumbo from chain-smoking, bathtub writing more films, including Spartacus.
This is a beautifully shot and somehow gentle feel-good old-school movie. It’s directed by Jay Roach, who’s apparently come a long way since Austin Powers.