Review: Charlize Theron transforms into Megyn Kelly, blasts the Fox News patriarchy in 'Bombshell'

Charlize Theron won an Academy Award for playing a serial killer in "Monster," and she's just as impressively complex as a well-known cable news journalist.

It’s another complete and uncanny transformation for Theron, who dazzles as anchor Megyn Kelly in the all-star drama “Bombshell” (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, nationwide Dec. 20), about the women who spoke out against a culture of rampant misogyny and harassment to topple Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.

Thanks to Oscar-winning makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who turned Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill two years ago for “Darkest Hour,” facial prosthetics help to match Kelly’s look while Theron definitely did her homework on the celebrity journalist's diction. But most stellar is the way she inhabits the complexities of a woman who has benefited in part from the competitive, male-centric work environment she now has to tackle.

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While uneven at times, the film is similarly sharp and savvy as director Jay Roach’s other political fare, “Game Change” and “Recount." And with a somewhat satirical and over-the-top streak akin to last year’s “Vice,” "Bombshell" elucidates both the fall of a powerful creepazoid but more importantly the rising up of female moxie amid the boys’ club.

“This place is crazy,” producer Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon), a closeted lesbian and liberal, tells fresh-faced employee Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) with total understatement about the atmosphere at conservative Fox News. Women are played against each other to get ahead and “leg man” Ailes (John Lithgow), the notorious master puppeteer, is more concerned about displaying his employees’ gams and other physical assets than being “fair and balanced.”

Kayla is an evangelical millennial who sees herself as "an influencer in the Jesus space" and is central to one of three intertwining subplots in “Bombshell.” However, the real focal point is Kelly, who begins a public feud with presidential candidate Donald Trump at a 2015 Republican debate.

While she deals with online vitriol that hits way too close to home, her colleague Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) is fired and sues Ailes for sexual harassment, which throws the already tumultuous Fox newsroom into divisive chaos. Kelly has complicated feelings when it comes to Ailes, who has both mentored and harassed her, and she comes to grips with how blind she’s been to the situation while weighing her response to the big boss’ skeevy actions.

Written by Charles Randolph (“The Big Short”) “Bombshell” covers similar ground to Showtime’s miniseries “The Loudest Voice,” which stars Russell Crowe as Ailes, though the story is told from the women's perspective. The Carlson subplot is the weakest while the tale of Kayla, a composite persona, is most effective in illuminating the unease of being a female Fox employee.

A zealot for the conservative cause, Robbie’s character witnesses firsthand what extreme lengths she has to go to make Ailes happy: In one truly uncomfortable scene, the old man breathlessly eyes Kayla as she gradually hikes her skirt up, tearfully looking away as you see her spirit breaking in the moment.

Robbie is outstanding portraying Kayla’s strong character arc, while Lithgow solidly nails the unpleasant Ailes, who berates Carlson while he raids the doughnut table and has women spin around in his office to see if they're (in his eyes) ready for a prime-time spot. In "Bombshell," the male gaze is played as an unnerving and everyday aspect of work life, not only in the disconcerting Ailes scenes but also just with grinning dudes checking out Kelly on the sly.

There’s a masterful sequence later in the movie where Kayla confronts Kelly about her silence about past abuses. It's an emotional subtext only touched on fleetingly in “Bombshell" yet begs to be explored more throughout a film otherwise so good at blowing up the patriarchy.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Bombshell' review: Charlize Theron's Megyn Kelly takes on Fox News