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Back Shelf Beauties
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The Libertine The Libertine could be one of the most atrocious films you will ever see in your entire life. It hits the trifecta of stink. First, it's one of those stuffy period pieces with fancy flowing clothes and ye olde English. Second, it wants to shock us with its "provocative" sexual themes, language and behavior, which aren't sexy or enticing. Third, it makes me think less of an actor I really like. Johnny Depp plays Jon Wilmot - The Earl of Rochester and a writer who lives life to the most debauched extremes he can. Wilmot has never met a drink he didn't consume or a woman he didn't fancy, which gives him a notorious reputation in 17th century England. However, he is well liked and has a certain amount of charm when needed, so King Charles II (John Malkovich) seeks Wilmot's help to quell growing unrest in Parliament and the House of Lords. His first task is to write a play to entertain a French dignitary coming to England, but Wilmot is not one to do the diplomatic type of work. Will Wilmot's shocking play lead to the King's downfall? Can Wilmot find the inspiration to write while romancing an actress in the production, Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton)? It has been a long time since I have seen such a talented group of actors in such a dreadful piece of junk. Depp is amazing as the hedonistic hero who has sex with everything that moves, betrays his wife, drinks himself into a prolonged stupor and suffers a downfall of his own making. He commands the screen at every turn and with every line, but the movie is incomprehensible, so I have to wonder why he did it. Director Laurence Dunmore should have done more to make the story flow and tie together what feels like several short stories with their own respective conclusions. I would have been happier if he broke it up into several short acts that didn't give the pretense of coming together into one cohesive story. Each one could have been a look into the life of Wilmot instead of several sub-plots tugging and pulling the story apart. Also, you'll never see a cheaper or more dreadful looking movie. It appears as if Dunmore was using some sort of camera from the collection of Cecil B. DeMille or one tossed onto the scrap heap by a major motion picture back in the 1930's. The film is grainy, the color dull and the overall look bland and lifeless. Depp does what he can to draw the audience in, and has a great deal of help from Malkovich, Morton, Rosamund Pike, and Tom Hollander. However, the movie doesn't make much sense and is agonizingly long and unfocused. Writer Stephen Jeffreys is more concerned with providing shock value dialogue and action than he is at developing the story. It's as if you got very drunk before going and tried to sober up while watching The Libertine, or everyone involved with the movie got drunk before making it. 0 Waffle (Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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