Atlas Shrugged Part I Review

My wife and I were lucky enough to see the first showing of the film “Atlas Shrugged Part I,” based on the 1957 Ayn Rand novel.  The theater had a pretty good crowd for a weekday matinee showing.

Would you believe that some want you to boycott the movie?

OK, kidding aside, it is difficult to adapt any good book to a movie, and this is no exception.  The novel is not set in a 1950s time frame, but rather, the action starts September 2, 2016.  The movie is made more modern in many respects with cell phones, computers, and a lot less smoking.  Because of the very high price of gas and the crash of the airline industry, using rail for freight and passengers has come back into vogue.

For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, Dagny Taggart is trying to run her family business, the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad as the Operating Vice President.  She is the technically oriented one and butts heads with her brother Jim, the railroad president.  Jim is more interested in schmoozing with bureaucrats in Washington.  Dagny is aided by Eddie Willers, a childhood friend who is sort of her go-fer.  Dagny develops a strong business relationship (and then a romantic one) with Henry Rearden, a steel magnate who develops and markets a fantastic new product called Rearden Metal that is lighter, stronger, and cheaper than steel.  Every time Dagny needs someone to do an important job, that person quits and disappears from society.

In the meantime, Dagny and Henry find an abandoned motor prototype in a deserted auto manufacturing plant.  They realize the pure genius of the invention but need to track down the inventor.  Soon, the stories of the motor and of the disappearing men start to converge.   In addition, government policies are making the economy go from bad to worse.  New laws and policies only undermine Dagny’s and Henry’s efforts to build their businesses successfully.  The outcomes are hauntingly predictive of many events we see taking place today.

None of the actors are “big name” people, but they do a pretty good job.  Taylor Schilling does pretty well as Dagny Taggart, though she is a bit weak.  (A stronger acting job here really could have made the movie more powerful.)  Grant Bowler turns in a strong performance as Henry Rearden.  Other strong performances come from Matthew Marsden (as James Taggart), Michael Lerner (as Wesley Mouch, the lobbyist turned chief government bureaucrat), Jon Polito (as Orren Boyle), Rebecca Wisocky (as Henry Rearden’s wife Lillian), and Graham Beckel (as oil magnate Ellis Wyatt).  Christina Pickles (as Henry Rearden’s mother) could turn in a pretty convincing performance in a biopic of Nancy Pelosi if one were ever made, while Michael Lerner’s role as Wesley Mouch easily reminds the viewer of Rep. Barney Frank.

While it is easy to complain about this movie adaptation, it has a lot of good moments.  The sight gags (like a truck with the name “Bureau of Redistribution”) are funny, and the plot moves along well.  To some extent, the movie leaves you wanting more.  As one who has read the book more times than is generally considered healthy (but less than a lot of others have), I certainly wish that a few more plot elements had been included.  My wife, who has only started reading the book, still said she enjoyed the film and thought that the story line held together even for those who were not deeply familiar with the book or Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

So definitely, go see this movie.  The Examiner gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars, but I would give at least 3.5 (and my wife gives it 4 stars).