My eyes! Oh, it burns!

RKO 281: The Battle Over Citizen Kane

starring Liev Schrieber, John Malkovich, James Cromwell, Melanie Griffith, David Suchet

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it's close. I went into this movie with a lot of anticipation, being a long-time fan of Welles and Citizen Kane, but my hopes were crushed by the mediocre acting, blatant inaccuracies (yes, I know it's a movie, but a movie about a real situation shouldn't have quite so much make believe) and overdramatics. For instance, that scene where Welles talks Mankiewicz into coming back on Kane by telling that sob story about his father? Feh. Not even close to believable.

Liev Schrieber is, sadly, typecast (at least in my mind) as the might-be-a-killer, Cotton Weary, from the Scream films. I tried not to hold that against him, but his performance as Welles was so unconvincing that it kept coming to mind. Welles was such an unusual and magnetic personality, with his deep, distinctive voice, that it's hard to imagine any actor playing him well. Vincent D'Onofrio gave a better performance in Ed Wood as Welles than Schrieber can manage here. Not to say his acting was bad, mind you, but just that I didn't for a moment have any kind of feeling that it was Orson Welles. The yelling and screaming about how Kane is all he's got seemed so phony. Unfortunately, that was about the most exciting thing about the role.

That is only one of the reasons, however, why it was impossible to enjoy the movie. Melanie Griffith was so bad as Marion Davies, I can hardly put it into words. I'm sure poor Miss Davies is spinning like a top in her grave. John Malkovich gets some good lines as Herman Mankiewicz; he's at his best when trying to talk Welles out of making Kane. James Cromwell does a creditable job as William Randolph Hearst, and the scenes between Hearst and Marion could have been really quite touching if it weren't for Melanie and her enormous hot pink lips. Ech.

For serious Welles fans and film historians, or even those with only a casual interest, you are much better off watching the documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane than trying to get the "making of Kane" story from this film.