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Title: Cinematic satire is dead
Review: Tom Lehrer once said that political satire died the day Henry Kissinger was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Thus it is with cinematic satire as this film won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. There is no story of any worth here. It adds nothing to our understanding of the human condition (which other reviewers seem to imply is where its value lies) per se, it is merely a series of sketches in search of a coherent theme which fails qua entertainment. McKellan and Redgrave do their best, but with such prosaic material to work off they cannot save a very boring film whose raison d'etre escapes the ever increasing somnolent viewer. That it won an Oscar for the screenplay says far more about the Academy's often appalling decisions than anything else. Perhaps, like the American Presidency, lobby money can buy anything.
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