"Cradle Will Rock," written and directed by Tim Robbins, begins with a blaring newsreel that recalls the opening of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane." Robbins also makes use of long, mobile takes, just as Welles did in "Touch of Evil."
But don't let such similarities trick you into thinking that "Cradle" will become any kind of classic, much less one worthy of comparison with "Kane." A course on newspaper journalism of the time or on William Randolph Hearst's life isn't necessary to enjoy and understand Welles' masterpiece. "Cradle," however, requires much more understanding of the important people and movements of the era in order to follow it.
Just like Charles Foster Kane, Robbins can't seem to tell when enough is enough. For anyone who is not well-versed in the art and politics of the Depression era, this movie is nearly incomprehensible. What's more difficult is that Robbins interweaves the intricate '30s details into such a tangled web that he traps the audience.
Interestingly enough, Welles himself (Angus MacFadyen of "Braveheart") is one of the main characters in "Cradle." Other real-life figures portrayed here include Marc Blitzstein, the writer of the original play "The Cradle Will Rock"; Nelson Rockefeller; John Houseman; Hallie Flanagan, who spearheaded the Federal Theatre Project (Cherry Jones); and Margherita Sarfatti, Mussolini's lover and pawn (Susan Sarandon).
The initial plot of the movie begins simply enough. Olive Stanton (Emily Watson), a homeless woman, needs a job and procures the position of stagehand in the production of "Faustus," a play under the direction of Welles and produced by the Mercury Theatre legend Houseman. The audience is then introduced to Blitzstein, who is writing the complex social satire of a steel union town.
While the viewers are still trying to scrape and piece together facts from their high school history classes to recall what the issues of U.S. steel unions were, they are also bombarded with the disputes between the Federal Theatre Project and the U.S. Congress over alleged communist sympathies.
The audience can't mull over this for too long, however, because Diego Rivera (Ruben Bladés), an eccentric Mexican muralist of the time, pervades the rest of the film with his commentary on the upper class, Mussolini's Fascism and Lenin. At this point, viewers may kick themselves for having taken geography in high school instead of world history.
The audience is lost. Any further description of this overwhelming plot is pointless and furthers the already overwhelming confusion.
To complement the excessiveness of "Cradle," MacFadyen's portrayal of Welles has the subtlety of a bad "Saturday Night Live" sketch. Sarandon is no better, but at least she's not in as many scenes.
The highlights of the movie come from characters that are refreshingly simple. Watson's Olive is extremely likable, as is her castmate, Aldo (John Turturro), in the play "The Cradle Will Rock."
Cherry Jones is fun as the sassy and intelligent head of the Federal Theatre Project. Carey Elwes, Joan Cusack ("In & Out") and Bill Murray deserve many laughs and much respect as the three characters that get the most disrespect in the film. And last but not least are Vanessa Redgrave as the hilarious Countess LaGrange and her buffoonish "protégé" (Paul Giamatti of "Private Parts").
Robbins' "Dead Man Walking" also tried to instruct audiences about one of the writer-director's beliefs: that the death penalty should be abolished. But the film achieved riveting drama through its simple, tightly coiled plot. Robbins needs to learn the lesson that less is usually more instead of trying to teach several multifaceted history lessons in one film.
"Cradle Will Rock" leaves anyone who has not studied the art and politics of the '30s feeling quite dumbfounded and ignorant at the end of its tedious two-and-a-half-hour running time.
Grade: B-
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