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Mank review: Netflix film about the Citizen Kane writer is one of the best of 2020

<p>Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies and Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in Mank</p> (NETFLIX)

Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies and Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in Mank

(NETFLIX)

If you’ve never given a moment’s thought to the screenwriter of Orson Welles’ epic, Citizen Kane - Herman J. Mankiewicz, aka Mank - that only proves how much we need David Fincher’s passionate, pulchritudinous, if flawed biopic. An industry insider tells Mank (Gary Oldman), “You always side with the writer!” Fincher’s guilty of the same wonderful crime.

The movie playfully replicates Citizen Kane’s non-linear structure. It’s 1940 and a bed-bound, unwillingly sober Mank is on deadline. With the help of a smart, fragrant secretary (Lily Collins), he has to produce a working script for lofty golden boy Orson (Tom Burke). In between the frantic typing, the action skips to 1930, 1933 and 1934, when our hero’s on his feet, though mostly legless.

<p>Tom Burke inhabits the role of Orson Welles</p>NETFLIX

Tom Burke inhabits the role of Orson Welles

NETFLIX

In 1930, Mank charms starlet Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried; who deserves a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and may well get one; Hollywood loves smart girls disguised as dumb blondes). More surprisingly, he also impresses Davies’ sugar daddy, the publisher William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance). By 1933, Mank is a regular guest at Hearst’s mansion, San Simeon, where a party is held for wily, rabidly-right-wing studio head, Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard). By 1934, Mayer and Hearst are out to smear socialist author-turned-politician Upton Sinclair. That the pair are successful makes Mank sick to his already-nauseated stomach.

All the while, in 1940, rumours that Mank’s script is based on Hearst and Davies means half of Hollywood is begging him to drop the project. Has Mank dug his own grave?

Oldman is wonderful. His Mank sounds as elegant as William Powell, but looks like a flabbergasted hobo. We get a measure of the character’s self-disgust every time the camera goes near his eyes. At 62, Oldman’s a bit old for the role (in 1930, Mankiewicz was 33), but it works.

The choice of Dance and Burke is just as smart. They inhabit their characters completely; it's like watching photographs come to life. And what photos! Fincher is famous for his visual perfectionism, but the way he uses digital cameras to recreate 30s and 40s film magic is obscenely clever.

Many critics have said Mank is fit to be compared to Citizen Kane. Alas, that’s not true. With the exception of the gloriously droll Davies, the female characters are two-dimensional foils. The secretary, Rita, is initially wary of Mank, but ultimately loyal. Mank’s wife, Sara (Tuppence Middleton), is exasperated and loyal. The housekeeper, Frieda (Monika Gossmann) is just plain loyal.

Meanwhile, in its eagerness to serve up a likeable protagonist, it at times feels downright old-fashioned. A friend of Welles’ reads the first chapters of Mank’s opus and says, “You’re asking a lot from a motion picture audience.” The script for Mank doesn’t ask enough.

<p>Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer and Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg</p>NETFLIX

Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer and Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg

NETFLIX

It was written by Fincher’s dad, Jack, who died in 2003. Fincher could have filmed it while his dad was alive, but was so obsessed with shooting it in black and white that the script wound up stuck on the shelf. Books will one day be written, I’m sure, about the way guilt and regret (Mank’s, as well as Fincher’s) have shaped this narrative, which is undermined by information that has come to light since Jack’s death about who actually did the work on the Citizen Kane scripts. Fincher chose to ignore it, rather than tinker with his father’s script. In order to honour his dad’s vision, David has compromised his own. Still, it’s easily one of the best things to come out in 2020.

RKO granted Welles complete control over his first project; they said he could make any movie, with any collaborator he wished. He chose Herman J. Mankiewicz. When Netflix made Fincher the same offer, he chose his late Dad. Credit where credit’s due. By siding with the writer, David Fincher draws attention to the small print and, in the process, concocts a fabulous and moving yarn of his own.

12A ,131mins, on Netflix now