If there's one sure-fire formula for success, it's the hero story.

You identify the enemy and the hero, then send the hero through adversity, only to come out the other side lauded and praised.

We all know the plot line so well. The real challenge then, is to find subject matter that can resonate, yet hasn't been oversold.

Step forward Trumbo, a biopic of a highly respected screenwriter, unknown to many.

The film is directed by Jay Roach, and stars Bryan Cranston in the lead role.

The movie follows the early success of Trumbo's career, only for him to be subsequently blacklisted in Commie-hating 50s America, and effectively banished from screenwriting of any kind, at least under his own name.

Now, if one is going to make a film with this basic hero construct, one has to balance out the political themes, the personal strife, the battles won and the people lost.

It is very seductive to start a film out with 50s Jazz music, slicked back hair, whiskey and cigarettes, but this is just filler. Atmospheric filler, but filler none the less. We need superb scene material, ripe for the picking. Fortunately, this film has just that.

We are introduced to a successful screenwriter family man. There is already menace in the air from the over-zealous overly proud Democrats and Republicans, but all is well as witty Trumbo and his group of highly intelligent writer pals intellectually and comically run rings round their foes.

That is, at first.

The tide starts to turn and our enlightened band of writers become more and more endangered.

In one scene, we are in Trumbo's lush back garden, as he hosts a barbecue for his friends and family.   A government car appears and a subpoena is thrust into Trumbo's hand.

From that moment, the powers that be, become all the more intrusive and overpowering in their tactics.

In a rotten turn of luck, a sympathetic judge passes away, and jail sentences are doled out to anybody with Communist leanings.

After Trumbo receives the subpoena, he dutifully appears before a public hearing. He has a stack full of evidence and a talent for eloquence, but is quickly shouted down by the J. Parnell Thomas played with an impressively repugnant self-righteousness, by James DuMont.

It is at this moment that Trumbo realises he is trying to reason with madness; a madness fuelled with power. His energy switches. The charming literate swagger washes away, leaving a brash, stubborn inner steel. His trust in his democratic country falters, and it becomes increasingly clear that he will have to survive by any means he can.

We are thus plopped into the murky waters of a dangerous witch-hunt America, where you aren't allowed to think a certain way.

On the other side of the political fence, stalks Helen Mirren. She paints a brilliant portrait of Hedda Hopper, Hollywood gossip journalist, right winger, and all round bad egg. She is slimy and ruthless in her role.

Perhaps the most memorable performance however, comes from Louis C.K.

The American comedian and actor plays the tragic figure of Arlen Hird, probably the only communist in the film who seems to be willing to die for what he believes in.

His acerbic wit gifts the film with another comic angle, so crucial in such a dark point in Democratic history.

In an excellent scene with Trumbo, Hird confronts him on the depths of his beliefs in Communism, and it becomes clear that amongst all of Trumbo’s vaulting righteousness, lurks vanity.

More importantly still, however, the extent of human resilience is brought into question. “I don’t think you’re willing to lose all of this, just to do the right thing” says Hird, while Trumbo points out his willingness to risk everything but not lose everything.

If there is a scene that perfectly gifts us the film in a nutshell, this is it.

The demands of dangerous political leanings ominously threaten the importance of one’s personal life.

How does one stay true to one’s spirit, overcome insurmountable odds, and come up smiling? It’s serious stuff.

That being said, this very real world is consistently peppered with the comedy of Hird’s charming bullshit detector, Trumbo’s witty rascal persona, and a hilariously ferocious turn by John Goodman, as a down and dirty, brutally honest B movie producer.

It's all a horrible situation, but somehow, comedy is wrung out in the most dire circumstances.

Sure, it’s a standard hero story. The Commie-haters send our hero through hell, only for him to have the last laugh, and the ultimate triumph. It’s hardly ground-breaking stuff, but it’s got real substance, political resonance and heaps of charm. Most importantly of all, it balances them. It’s worth a watch.

News Shopper:

Trumbo (15) is out Friday.