THE LIBERTINE (2004)

SHORT REVIEW: This film about a sexual adventurer will leave you needing a shower. Not a cold shower, mind you. The shower will be taken in attempt to get the stink of this film off of you. I imagine this is what it would be like if D.H. Lawrence were producing Cinemax’s late night faire. This film is about 17th Century philander John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester who descends into an hollow existence of continual carnality. No, the film is not as much fun as it sounds. Based on his own play, Stephen Jeffreys provides a dialog and character rich piece that suffers from its dialog and characters. To water this down, Johnny Depp plays a lecherous version of Jack Sparrow. Rochester is a groping fop who manages complex sentence structures while rutting on the furniture. Some roles are sticky and after they are performed it hangs on an actor for the remainder of his days. Just ask Al Pacino “Whoo-ya!” Depp fails to pull away from the pirate role that made him a household name and it distracts from an otherwise good performance. I kept wondering why Depp decided to portray Jack Sparrow portraying Jim Morrison. Depp enjoys the dialog, this is obvious, and he seems to enjoy his work in this production. His efforts, along with an outstanding supporting performance by John Malkovich (who originated the role of Rochester on the American stage,) are somewhat wasted. Rochester opens the film by narrating that we will not like him. This is true. He is clearly unlikable. This prompts the question of why we would want to spend two hours with the man. The answer is you don’t. The point of the piece is to watch Jack Sparrow…er, Jack Vulture decay on screen but it would have been nice to have some interest in watching it happen. The piece is slathered in mud, sweat and adjectives. While Jeffrey’s stage play may be well rounded and interesting, his screenplay is overdone and a bore. Director Laurence Dunmore manages some interesting scenes with the heavy script but can’t bring the thing to life. We are left with a dirty story about a dirty man living in dirty times. If I want that, I’ll watch that stupid reality show about Hugh Hefner. RELATED REVIEWS: Other Johnny Depp movies Secret Window (2003) Finding Neverland (2004) Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Categories: film, movie review, Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Stephen Jeffreys