Fincher's film of his Dad's screenplay is too long and features too many characters - even if you know who people like Joseph von Sternberg and Ben Hecht are, it's still too populous. Simplify, simplify. And whilst Erik Messerschmidt's photography can look stunning, there's other times when it's so dark that (a) you don't know who we're seeing (b) it distances you from the action; the night time scene with Mank (Gary Oldman) and Marion (Amanda Seyfried) is a good example - it should draw you in, but you feel left out.
And of course the premise is totally unsound - according to Welles' biographers, there's evidence from RKO's legal department that Mankiewicz was always to be given screen credit and thus Welles' (Tom Burke) outburst against the writer is ridiculous... Leaving the story that Hearst helped swing the elections by using faked film interviews - engineered by MGM - the strongest and most topical part of the story.
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