movies: mortdecai

I spoken in other reviews about actors having big chunks of set wedged in their teeth due to overly enthusiastic chewing of the scenery... just about everyone involved in Mortdecai puts them to shame... deep, deep, deep, overwhelming shame.

It's not a smart movie, it's not a complex movie (although I think it attempts to be on more than one occasion), but what it is is a silly, fun, enjoyable movie.

And at it's heart it's 50% heist movie and 50% farce.

Johnny Depp is Lord Charles Mortdecai, all around rogue, art dealer, total nincompoop and owner of the most luxuriant moustaches since Hercule Poirot. Paul Bettany is Jock, his long-suffering man servant and is clearly channelling his inner Jason Statham. Gwyneth Paltrow is Lady Mortdecai, very chilly, very efficient and very British. And Ewan McGregor is Martland, the MI5 detective (and old rival) who is trying to secure the painting and seduce Lady M.

Like I said, it's silly, incredibly over-the-top, and tried very, very hard to be a better movie than it actually is. In fact, if I'm being honest, the story and it's lack of complexity is where the movie falls squarely on it's face. But it is a ton of fun, and it does have one of the best and slickest looking travelling transition sequences I've seen in a long while.

So if you're in the mood for a lot of INCREDIBLY camp and outrageous performances, and a movie that isn't going to overly tax your brain but which should make you laugh, this is definitely the right movie to choose.

yani's rating: 2 Duchesses out of 5