The Libertine

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! There May Be SPOILERS in the movie reviews !

Christy Lemire
Canadian Press
Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Johnny Depp stars as the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet , in " The Libertine."

(AP) - "Allow me to be frank at the commencement," Johnny Depp warns in a seductive British purr in the first few seconds of The Libertine, his fine features partially shrouded in candlelight. "You will not like me."

But truly, how could we help ourselves? As John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester, Depp plays the archetypal bad boy, a guy who partied like it was 1999 back in the 1670s. Wine, women, song - name it, he was into it, and fiercely so.

It's as if his flamboyant character from the Pirates of the Caribbean had let himself go, physically and psychologically - given into all his darkest inclinations and lapsed into a deep, cynical state of debauchery.

As John's preferred prostitute says in sizing him up, "I would call you a man who pretends to like life more than he does." And that's a very astute observation. Wilmot's performance does feel like an elaborate defence mechanism, one that will be the source of his eventual downfall.

Depp's performance, meanwhile, in riveting in its wickedness. This is a part John Malkovich would have played 20 years ago - and he did as the naughty, scheming Valmont in the thematically similar Dangerous Liaisons. Now Malkovich plays the morally uptight King Charles II (and serves as one of the film's producers), with a prosthetic nose that makes Nicole Kidman's fake proboscis from The Hours look dainty.

But a little of this devilishness goes a long way. Depp, of course, brings all his usual subtleties and nuance to the role - he does more with one eyebrow than most actors can do with their entire bodies - but after a while it feels a bit one-note and becomes overbearing. Then again, so does the entire film from Laurence Dunmore, working from Stephen Jeffreys' script and play and making his directing debut.

Part of the problem is the visual scheme. In trying to capture the gritty look of the London streets, pubs and brothels John prowls while procrastinating on the play Charles II has asked him to write, Dunmore has come up with a dark, claustrophobic aesthetic that makes it look as if the whole film were drawn in charcoal. Cool-looking for a music video, perhaps; suffocating after nearly two hours.

John also spends a great deal of time in the cramped, candlelit theatre with novice actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton). Lizzie is plain and appears to have zero talent when we witness her first performance, but John - instantly smitten despite having a beautiful, aristocratic wife (Rosamund Pike) - bets his friends he can turn her into the toast of the London stage.

And he does. Her Ophelia brings down the house, but before that, her exchanges with John during rehearsal have a fire and wit that reflect her inner talent.

Then her ascension mirrors John's decline. Despite having a way with words, the play he concocts for the king is just a lazy and crude pornographic display intended to shock the theatre audience. The movie audience, meanwhile, will probably find it just tedious.

Johnny Depp in "The Libertine"

Everyone in Hollywood must face the same devilish question of compromise at some point. Many, in exchange for fame, fortune and a good table at Ashton Kutcher's restaurant, will happily trade in their artistic aspirations for a big-budget,

roman-numeral-bearing remake co-starring Tom Arnold as the zany neighbor next door. Others, meanwhile, cling so tightly to their anti-commercial virtues that they boast about their new John Sayles movie opening soon in one theater as their tears fall into the mac-and-cheese dinner they've prepared in their studio apartment.

Remarkably, Johnny Depp has successfully straddled this line for more than two decades, earning himself an audience filled with equal numbers of shrieking "Pirates" fanatics and turtleneck-clad film students joyously reciting "Dead Man" dialogue. It seems like part of his master plan, then, that the Kentucky-born actor would spend November simultaneously shooting the world's most high-profile sequels, debuting a controversial unrated art film and receiving a career tribute at age 42.

"I'd do it over exactly the same way if I had to do it over," Depp grinned through gold-capped teeth at the recent premiere of his bawdy drama "The Libertine." "I wouldn't do anything over."

To Depp, that credo now includes "The Libertine," a sexy 17th-century biopic that the ratings board attempted to slap with an NC-17. The star hopes that a decent percentage of the crowd that recently made "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a hit will give the much-smaller movie a similar chance when it opens wide following this month's Oscar-qualifying sneak previews.

"I can just say that getting the film made [was tough], but you feel that about every movie you make," said Depp, who stars as real-life poet John Wilmot. The second Earl of Rochester, Wilmot's enormous appetites for sex, liquor and debauchery (he is believed to have created the world's first printed piece of pornography) contributed to his death at age 33. Needless to say, the role is a long, long way from Willy Wonka. "Suddenly, you're in the ring, and doing the film, and you go, 'It's amazing that we got this thing off the ground.' "

"[Depp] has been involved with the project for about 10 years," first-time director Laurence Dunmore marveled of his leading man. "He went to see John Malkovich play Rochester on the stage. ... We went back to Johnny because he was the only person I saw being able to play Rochester the way I had in my vision. When he actually came to perform the role, it was obvious that he was born to play him."

"We did this film in 45 days, really down in the mud," Depp recalled, admitting that even the racy result (which co-stars Malkovich and Samantha Morton) only begins to scratch the surface of the life that Wilmot embraced so lustily. "If you did a true biopic of Rochester, it could have gone in many, many directions."

"I [now] play Charles II, the King of England," Malkovich said of handing over his stage character to Depp. "I certainly wouldn't have had any pointers for Johnny; he seems to have done quite well without me or my advice."

Although Depp received a brief shore leave from filming parts two and three of "Pirates of the Caribbean" (simultaneously shooting at various global locations) for "The Libertine" premiere, brief flashes of his trademark grin served as reminders that Jack Sparrow remained close at hand. "They're about as permanent as they can be," Depp laughed about his fronts, "until the dentist scrapes them off my skull."

The actor further reported that, when he received the scripts for the sequels (the first of which hits theaters in July), he was pleasantly surprised with the tender directions in which the filmmakers took the rough-edged Captain Sparrow. "There is a nice opportunity for Jack to get a little bit introspective here and there," he said, "which is kind of a different angle on the guy."

Earlier in the same evening, Depp attended an American Film Institute event held in his honor. Peppering his speech with lovingly self-deprecating jabs at his old appearances, the star fought back uncomfortable feelings of self-congratulation while watching clips from a body of work that contrasts "Cry-Baby" with "The Man Who Cried," and "Edward Scissorhands" with "Ed Wood." As "The Libertine" hits theaters, and two "Pirates" blockbusters prepare to follow, Depp seems certain to proudly continue walking his tightrope.

Posted Nov 21, 2005, 7:28 PM ET by Karina Longworth
Filed under: Johnny Depp, Distribution, Exhibition, Drama, Independent, The Weinstein Co.
libertine.jpgI was shocked by how many people expressed concern over The Weinstein Company's release plans for The Libertine, although I suppose I shouldn't have been - it's probably dangerous to underestimate the star power of Johnny Depp. At any rate, the comments on this post compelled me to send an email to The Weinstein Company to confirm that the initial information I had been given about the film's release was still correct. I was told that yes, the film is being released in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, and yes, its initial run will only last a week. Right now the plan is to return to theaters nationwide on January 13 but – and I know many of you were worried about this very thing – as the film is unrated, there's a good chance that those of you who only have access to middle-American multiplexes will never get to see it.

I'm only the messenger ... but toss your angst in the comments, anyway.

TAKING LIBERTIES – Top, Johnny Depp stars as the debauched 2nd Earl of Rochester in The Libertine, while Samantha Morton plays his actress lover; left, Rosamund Pike stars as the Earl’s long-suffering wife

THE theatrical origins of The Libertine, adapted for the screen by Stephen Jeffreys from his own stage play, are obvious from the opening monologue in which Johnny Depp, who plays the title role, tells his audience: “You will not like me.”

True to his word, it is difficult to connect with a character completly lacking in moral fibre, who gallops from sexual liaison to sexual liaison behind the back of his dutiful wife Elizabeth Malet (Rosamund Pike). At least the libertine’s penchant for shocking and offending allows the usually likeable Depp some great, if filth-riddled, one-liners.

The Libertine follows the story of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, a 17th Century rogue apparently so debauched he was ravaged with syphilis by the age of 30 and dead at 33 (perhaps hedging his bets, he wisely chose to convert to Christianity before his expiration).

The audience might find it hard to sympathise with Wilmot but he was loved by King Charles II (John Malkovich) and by commoners. He was said to be one of just two courtiers able to lift the King out of his depression yet, at the same time, he found himself banished from court on many an occasion for lampooning Charles in his poetry.

In the film, Wilmot’s downfall comes about when he falls under the spell of a struggling actress, played by Samantha Morton. Called on to create a play to improve Anglo-French relations, Wilson makes a bet with his friends he can transform the actress, his lover, into a star.

However, the resulting drama is an embarrassment to the King.

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