"THE
LIBERTINE" - JOHNNY DEPP HAS HIS WAY WITH US
By
Erica Hector Vital
Red Rock Review
Las Vegas Round The Clock
http://www.lasvegasroundtheclock.com
ericavital@cox.net
ericav@theflickchicks.com
ericav@lasvegasroundtheclock.com
THE LIBERTINE
Directed by: Laurence Dunmore
Written by: Stephen Jeffreys
THE LIBERTINE: JOHNNY DEPP HAS HIS WAY WITH US
We’ve always sensed the insatiable palate of the hedonist behind the dark
eyes and sharp bones of Johnny Depp, which is why moviegoers are so
thoroughly seduced by his Captain Jack Sparrow in the 2003 blockbuster
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and his doomed but sexy coke dealer George Jung in
BLOW (2001). There is something wild about Johnny that does more than appeal
and goes on to absolutely thrill us.
Always there is a glimpse of an intellectual hunger bold enough to match the
spirits of the flesh that surely drive such a man, which is to say that in
donning the flounced blouses and frozzy wigs of John Wilmont the Earl of
Rochester, a 17th century celeb known for his great wit and ribald poetry,
Depp is more himself than himself. His scandalously forthright and
uninhibited Wilmont fully consummates what audiences have always wanted of
him. And, as he boasts in a direct address to the camera in THE LIBERTINE,
his latest tour de force based on the stageplay by Stephen Jeffreys, he’s up
for it. “All the time.”
Passion was Wilmont’s milk and meat, the sort of passion that would lead a
man to abduct a moneyed bride not quite of age then desert her for the
gritty allure of a 17th century London whose dank streets and bawdy
streetwalkers bring to mind pornographic renderings of Milton’s Paradise
Lost.
Director Laurence Dunmore shoots the period without the rose-colored romance
of Merchant & Ivory productions. Dunmore and Depp are up close. Both camera
and actor do not shy away from the mud and the muck of a city newly
resurrected out of the tumult of war, the dissolution of Parliament, and the
exile, and eventual return of its monarchy.
This is the age of the Restoration, a heady, baudelarian awakening in the
arts, sciences, and religion which began with the return of Charles II whose
father, Charles I, was overthrown and executed and whose own ascendance to
the throne was beset by debauchery and intrique. Think of Depp’s John
Wilmont, the Earl of Rochester, as the campaign model of that era. As
Malkovich, a royal in his own right playing King Charles II proclaims with
an exhausted admiration, hoping to pull Wilmont out of his neverending
pursuit of brothels and drink, “Elizabeth had her Shakespeare.”
Charles II had his Earl of Rochester. It was a patronage rife with
resentment and flagrant disregard. History records Charles II having
banished the Earl a number of times along with having him locked in the
Tower of London. Malkovich and Depp play it well. So much so that we find as
much scintillation and deep-rooted pleasure in their scenes together as we
do in Rochester’s secret assignations.
The true libertine valued Reason as well as Passion, and Depp’s John Wilmont
gets as much out of infuriating Charles II and bandying clever insults with
his gang of fellow playwrights and poets, George Etherege (Tom Hollander)
and Billy Downs (Rupert Friend), actual historic figures, as he does
seducing his long-suffering wife, the luminous Rosamund Pike (PRIDE AND
PREDJUDICE, DIE ANOTHER DAY), tupping barmaids, and finally and fatally
falling in love.
The Earl of Rochester was nothing if he was not haunted. There is just as
much pain as there is passion in his exploits. Yet like Malkovich’s Charles
II, we hang on to the Earl’s every word, every gesture, with the naivety and
hope one feels even when we know we are in the presence of doom and genius.
THE LIBERTINE is sumptuous in its treatment of plot and language. The
pleasure I found in Depp’s handling of the Queen’s English is just this side
of sinful.
Those of us who were charmed by the angelic aura of Samantha Morton as the
Precog in MINORITY REPORT and the mute Hattie to Sean Penn’s Emmet Ray in
SWEET & LOWDOWN, will find that as London stage actress Elizabeth Barry, she
is just as much devil as Depp. Indeed, on screen just as it was in the real
life romance between Barry and Wilmont, the bawdy Earl of Rochester meets
his match.
