‘Good Night’ insular but rewarding

In theaters

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, directed by George Clooney, written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, 90 minutes, rated PG. Now playing, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

The new George Clooney movie, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” is similar to Clooney’s more recent movies in that it keeps audiences on the outside.

It’s an incubator of a movie, designed to be insular. There are dangers in that, not the least of which is the chance that you might leave viewers emotionally cold if your story and its characters are too aloof.

That was the case in “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Ocean’s Twelve,” two movies too hip for their own good; “Solaris,” which smacked of self-indulgence; and “Intolerable Cruelty,” whose focus was more on the physical attributes of its stars – Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones – than on the characters they inhabited.

“Good Night, and Good Luck” follows suit, but in this case, the isolation Clooney courts actually aids the film, giving it a sense of urgency it might have lacked.

Shot in gorgeous black-and-white by cinematographer Robert Elswit, here is a movie you watch with admiration for its subject, its technical achievements and its excellent performances. The caveat is that the movie is so ensconced in the time it evokes, the mid-1950s, that it demands that those who view it know a good deal about the events it explores in order to follow it with ease.

Younger audiences unaware of the showdown that took place between CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and Sen. Joseph McCarthy (played in news footage by himself), for instance, might initially find themselves scrambling to keep pace, as several readers have expressed through e-mail.

Their concerns and frustrations aren’t unreasonable – Clooney refuses to hold anyone’s hand here. But in defense of the movie, which can be enormously rewarding, this is a film whose larger issues of censorship and big government, journalism and the tricky relationship between news corporations and the advertisers who help bring us our news, are as timely now as they ever have been.

In the film, Strathairn gives an Academy Award-worthy performance as Murrow, the star journalist who witnessed the injustice being done by McCarthy, who purportedly sought the truth by rooting out suspected Communists in spite of a dark campaign that was built on lies and innuendo.

With his news team and producer Fred Friendly (Clooney) behind him, Murrow used his formidable position to go after the junior senator from Wisconsin, which caused CBS no small alarm. After all, an unprofitable show is an unwanted show, and what Murrow was about to do had the potential to cost CBS plenty should its advertisers bail.

Ingeniously weaving archival news footage throughout, Clooney creates a movie that skates in and out of what occasionally feels like a documentary, with McCarthy hanging himself in a pivotal scene and Murrow being lifted up as an example of what journalism must be.

Ancillary characters played by Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Ray Wise and Grant Heslov pepper the production, but they are meant only for the periphery. The exception is Frank Langella as William Paley, Murrow’s boss, on whose shoulders rested the considerable weight of navigating these unwanted waters. He is every bit as confident as Strathairn, grounding the movie while Clooney allows history to speak.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

MR. AND MRS. SMITH, directed by Doug Liman, written by Simon Kinberg, 112 minutes, rated: PG-13.

So, here’s the thing about Doug Liman’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” It’s big, it’s empty, its plot is trash, and yet it’s the biggest screen orgasm of the year. Now that it’s on DVD, audiences can enjoy the film in ways that the director and stars obviously intended – in the privacy of their bedrooms, with the shades drawn.

Onscreen, Pitt and Jolie have something that transcends performance and goes deeper than chemistry; they’re the real deal. As rote as their roles are in this movie, it’s clear from the first moment we see them as John and Jane Smith – a bored, supernaturally sexy husband and wife in the bickering throes of marriage counseling – that they like each other plenty and have come to have fun. A lot of fun.

In the film, John and Jane are unhappy at home, but having plenty of adventure in their professional lives, which neither knows about.

Jane thinks John works construction with his friend Eddie (Vince Vaughn); John thinks Jane slaves in the corporate world. The reality is that both are hired assassins with dozens of hits to their credit. When they are hired to kill each other, it’s viewed by each as an opportunity to be done with a marriage long since dead.

Throughout the film, Jolie delivers a performance rife with bared teeth, flared nostrils and haughty tosses of her hair. But what teeth, what hair – and what a toss. As for Pitt, he’s at the point in his career where he’s at last comfortable in his skin, with his popular ticks and quirks now boiled down to nuance.

Going into the movie, it would be foolish to ask too much of it. In spite of what its title suggests, the movie’s interest isn’t in relationships.

It’s in style, which gets to the heart of why the film is so emotionally cold but nevertheless so entertaining to watch.

Grade: B

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.