Depp's 'Libertine' is a repulsive lesson in history

Friday, March 10, 2006

Any movie top-billed by a star as hot as Johnny Depp that somehow manages to sit on a shelf for more than a year after its completion is bound to be a stinker. And, sure enough, "The Libertine" is every bit as dreadful as the rumor mill has been saying since 2004.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE LIBERTINE

DIRECTOR: Laurence Dunmore

CAST: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich

RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes

RATING: R for strong sexuality including dialogue, violence and language

GRADE: D

LINKS/TRAILERS
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Based on a play by Stephen Jeffreys that was produced by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater, it's basically a biopic of John Wilmot (Depp), second earl of Rochester, a noted Restoration poet, wit and all around rake who debauched himself to an early death in 1680.

The story covers his declining years as he returns to London after a brief exile, becomes involved with -- and trains -- an ambitious young actress (Samantha Morton), conflicts with his mentor, King Charles II (John Malkovich), and gradually dies of the pox.

Depp has a flash or two of charisma, but this may be his all-time worst performance. He can't convey anything going on in the character's mind beyond cynicism, his meditations on life and art all ring false, and there's just nothing to like about the guy.

Visually, the film is unpleasantly murky and claustrophobic, and its historical texture is thin. Like too many stage adaptations, the script is unnecessarily talky, and the first-time direction of Laurence Dunmore is flat and weak.

Despite its title, the movie could hardly be less erotic. Indeed, promiscuity has never looked more totally unappealing, and its final scenes of Wilmot's advanced venereal disease are enough to make you take a vow of celibacy. A great date movie, this is not.

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