Bryan Cranston, of Breaking Bad fame, plays the pre-eminently witty screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in this true story – which feels more like parable – about enemies, friends and family living under the extraordinary pressure of the communist scare in the 1940s and ’50s in the US.

Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) is a vindictive but widely syndicated columnist, with a new high-fashion costume in every scene, waging a crusade against communists lurking in the American film industry.

Trumbo is asked to incriminate himself and his fellow leftist screenwriters when hauled in front of the congressional House un-American Activities Committee, as are many of his colleagues.

It’s a question of admission, contempt of congress or betrayal for each of those identified.

Soon, Trumbo and his friends are unable to work under their real names for anybody. The resulting web of pseudonyms and a slavish work routine for little financial reward tests his adoring and fortified wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and children Chris (Mattie Liptak) and Mitzi (Becca Nicole Preston, who gives a notable performance as the daughter who must blaze her own trail out from under the shadow of her enigmatic father).

Alongside the tragedy and consolation of the real-life plot itself, it is Cranston’s performance that fuels the film. He is brilliant as the lined and loquacious screenwriter – who says everything, to the annoyance of a friend, “like it’s going to be chiselled into a rock” – navigating the harsh requirements of life as a pariah while trying to remain the loving family man.

Mirren, however, is a little wooden, although the script is partly to blame; it allows little opportunity for multiple dimensions for the icy gossip columnist – a power player at the height of her influence. While her character is menacing enough as antagonist, we simply don’t learn enough about her implied sadistic streak for the role to be convincing.

I left the cinema satisfied by the emotional journey of the film, but unexcited by the execution by director Jay Roach, who also directed the Austin Powers films. Nonetheless, the real life of Dalton Trumbo was tragic, comic and heartening enough that this slightly bland film is still worth the ticket price.