Cradle Will Rock (1999)

Director

• Tim Robbins

Starring

• Hank Azaria
• Rubén Blades
• Joan Cusack
• John Cusack
• Cary Elwes

Last On

01:25-03:35 Fri 2nd Jan 2009 130m
ITV1

Synopsis

Set during the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1930s, this dense and rather gruelling political drama focuses on the efforts of a bunch of New York theatre folk, including Orson Welles, to stage a left-wing play. When the powers that be block the project, all involved decide the show must go on. Actor-turned-director Tim Robbins marshals the material with some skill, convincingly evoking the vibrancy of both place and period. Yet he over-eggs the pudding by cramming in too many intertwined storylines and characters - some historical, some fictional. John Cusack, Susan Sarandon and Emily Watson head the cast, though the star turn comes from Bill Murray as a paranoid ventriloquist.