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Movie Review: Cradle Will Rock (Robbins)

The story of an attempt to stage a pro-union play as part of a government theater program during the depression, with a couple of side stories about Diego Rivera painting a controversial mural in the lobby of Rockefeller Center and a few other people impacted by the congressional investigation into communism in the FDR public works programs. It is one of those movies that makes you feel like you should know more about what really happened then, especially since the movie is probably not completely accurate (although they warn you with a "mostly true" tagline on the front). There were a lot of good actors in this, so there was a lot of it that was enjoyable to watch but I think the characters wound up either being good or bad, which seems a little simplistic. Maybe Bill Murray's ventrilloquist was the most realistic one in that sense, since he seemed to have some conflicting emotions and didn't always make the right choice but also didn't always make the bad choice. Overall, though, I think the movie felt a little forced, it lacked a nice flow. The fact that the musical that created the controversy is pretty lame certainly didn't help. I also didn't understand the need to have the author of the musical almost continually hallucinate. I really did enjoy the last shot, though, which shows you the good and the bad of seeing one of the character's predictions about the future of government theater be played out. It helped make it seem worthwhile to have sat through all of it. So, recommended if you like a lot of the people in the cast, since they all do get some fun scenes, but don't expect much as a whole.