DiCaprio emerges from all this with the only performance to lay claim to any subtleties. Dr Mindy’s rumpled appearance goes with a soft voice,a diffident manner and a tendency to panic attacks. To say the least,he’s an unlikely media performer,but the unpredictable nature of public taste when moulded by breakfast television turns him into a star.
DiCaprio mines some gentle comedy out of this transformation,especially when Brie decides to seduce him and he’s thrust into a Faustian pact. While his new popularity should make his apocalyptic message easier to sell,he finds himself softening his delivery for fear of losing his audience.
Lawrence,in contrast,is stuck on a single strident note. Unlike her professor,Kate finds moderation impossible. Her breakfast TV appearance drives her to the point of hysteria and has her swearing at everybody. In no time at all,she becomes a social media pariah and eventually finds herself in league with a band of like-minded rebels led by Timothee Chalamet. It’s a wasted opportunity. Having snared an actor who can do just about anything,McKay leaves her stranded in a role where she can’t use her comic flair.
Streep,too,has trouble arriving at a rhythm for her performance,maybe because Trump is such a hard act to follow. How do you parody somebody who has already gone to grotesque extremes in ignoring the dictates of reason and common sense? His vanity,too,is beyond exaggeration,so it’s no surprise that Streep fails to come up with anything more than a set of mannerisms.
None of this makes McKay’s scenario wholly implausible. Given the fact that the world’s governments are still dithering over the increasingly dire information about the effects of global warming,you can imagine that news of a more urgent apocalypse could get lost in translation.
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Yet the black comic aspects of this gloomy paradox are never fully realised. I kept wishing that it had fallen into the hands of Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin,Veep),a social satirist with all the gifts to make it work.
Don’t Look Upis in cinemas now and is released on Netflix on December 24.
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