Movie Review: Brexit

Brexit *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Toby Haynes.

Written by: James Graham.

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch (Dominic Cummings), Rory Kinnear (Craig Oliver), John Heffernan (Matthew Elliott), Gavin Spokes (Andrew Cooper), Liz White (Mary Wakefield), Kyle Soller (Zack Massingham), Simon Paisley Day (Douglas Carswell), Paul Ryan (Nigel Farage), Lee Boardman (Arron Banks), Nicholas Day (John Mills), Tim McMullan (Bernard Jenkin), Richard Durden (Bill Cash), Oliver Maltman (Michael Gove), Richard Goulding (Boris Johnson), Aden Gillett (Robert Mercer), Lucy Russell (Elizabeth Denham), Kate O'Flynn (Victoria Woodcock), Tim Steed (Daniel Hannan), Henrietta Clemett (Lucy Thomas). 

 

Watching Brexit, a HBO film, in the same week that British PM Theresa May had her Brexit plan roundly defeated in Parliament, and yet also didn’t lose the confidence of the House, is an odd experience. This story isn’t over yet – and yet an examination of just how the UK got to where it is now is still an interesting experience. It’s just that this story doesn’t have an ending yet.

 

The film does have the figures that most associate with Brexit – Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage – but it paints them mainly as idiots off getting the headlines, and doing the speeches, but not the real reason why people voted to leave. Instead, the film concentrates on Dominic Cummings (Benedict Cumberbatch) who was hired to lead the “Leave” campaign, and found just the right messaging to turn people to their side, and more importantly, how to get that messaging to the right people. The mistake the “Remain” campaign made – here represented by Craig Olivier (Rory Kinnear), then PM David Cameron’s Communications director – made was running this like a typical campaign, and not realizing until it was too late that Cummings was doing things different. He was using data mining and targeted social media to reach the disaffected – those who are already miserable, and therefore would most likely be convinced that change is a good thing. When you already have nothing, what could change possibly do to you?

 

Interestingly, Cummings is hardly painted as a true believer in the movie – rather someone who is just tired of the status quo, tired of no one listening, and everything staying the same, so he decides to cause chaos and see what happens. Cumberbatch is the right person to play a role like this – he has somewhat specialized in playing socially awkward geniuses/assholes who don’t give a shit about how anyone else sees things, because they are convinced that they are always right. And in this case, Cummings was right. The biggest decision is probably the one that seems simplest – the slogan “Take Back Control” – which doesn’t really indicate just what a massive change is coming, but rather evokes feelings of nostalgia for the ways things use to be (like, say, Make America Great Again).

 

The film was directed by Toby Haynes, who is perhaps trying to be too smart and clever and stylish than he needs to be here, with a bunch of flash cuts and talking directly to the camera, etc. The film is at its best when it plays fewer of those games. You are unlikely to forget a Focus Group meeting, that devolves into yelling when the different sides cannot agree on anything – and a white woman freaks out when she is accused of be racist. Her tantrum feels real – and she has a point – even if those accusing her of racist thoughts also have a point. Still, by doing so, she becomes further cemented in her position than ever before.

 

We don’t really know where Brexit will lead at this point. Right now, it seems all options are still on the table, and no one knows how it will play out. People already seem to have regrets about voting for it, but is the train too far down the tracks to do anything about it? The truth though is no matter the outcome, how they got there is an important story. I think calling the movie Brexit is perhaps a mistake – it implies something bigger about this story, that it will be all encompassing, and it is not. But it tells an important part of how the UK got there – and, like reality, offers no solution for how to get out.