And so My Own Private Leonardo Di Caprio season continues, this time with The Man in the Iron Mask (Randall Wallace, 1998). I think all I can say is hmmm...
For the first half I must confess I was mainly bored. There seemed to be a lot of talent on display here (Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, erm, Gerard Depardieu), but not a lot of quality acting. Quite a lot of scraggly hair, hammy scripting and sets so wobbly they make 80s Dr Who look like HBO, but that's about it. Televisual production values aside, it did get better as it went on, my interest level was raised once the identity of the masked man is revealed. Plenty of intrigue and subterfuge made for much better viewing.
I will be awarding Di Caprio 2nd prize in my filmic Twin awards (the criteria being one actor playing two twin siblings simultaneously on screen, nothing to do with DeVito). He did a wonderful job of making the two of them completely disparate and identifiable, even in the same clothes, by the hard/soft-ness of his gaze alone - so nice work there. The winner of this illustrious honour is young Freddie Highmore in the excellent Spiderwick Chronicles (Mark Waters, 2008).
I'm really struggling to find anything else to say about this film, other than it's just not my cup of tea. No idea how this managed to pass me by, but I was not aware ante-view that this was a Musketeers-y film (yeah, I know, now I feel really thick), and had a I known that, I might have expected slightly less, and enjoyed it slightly more. I was also upset by how no effort whatsoever was made towards a sniff of accent continuity. I'm not saying that films where Hollywood actors bleat away in Eurotrash accents throughout are necessarily a good thing; but the complete non-approach here was significantly worse. Within only the opening scenes, your ears are assaulted by such a variety of regional accents, the effect is baffling! You have Depardieu with his fuzzy French-uncle drawl, the more dulcet tones of Irons, who to me will always sound like Scar from the Lion King, the unmistakably American (and anachronistically modern) voice of Di Caprio as the young King, then some bit-part plummy English from Hugh Laurie - it made my brain hurt.
So, all in all, a bit of a letdown. Unless you have a burning desire to see Gerard Depardieu's saggy bum for 5 or 6 seconds. In which case, knock yourself out.
Image (you can see what I mean about the hair) from epixhd.com - with thanks.
What are you saying about his bum? ;)
ReplyDeleteActually, for what it is I quite enjoy this film; it's an entertaining romp and another good example of Dicaprio really showing he has chops. As for the award for playing the twins, good call, and I wonder if you have seen "The Social Network"? That guy creates two completely different people in those two brothers, to the extent I was shocked to find they were not brothers