The Libertine (DVD)

In The Libertine Johnny Depp stars as second Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot, a bad boy poet extraordinaire. Wilmot has just about every vice in the book. He is a drunk, a cheat and most of all a womanizer. All qualities Depp takes and weaves into an extraordinarily worthy character.

The film begins with a candlelit Wilmot explaining to us how much we will not like him and how much he does not want us to like him. He explains how the "gentlemen will be envious and the ladies will be repelled." However, I think the moment I fell in love with the character was one sentence later when he says, "Ladies, an announcement. I am up for it all the time. This is not a boast or an opinion; it is bone hard medical fact." The quote goes further, but considering it is inside the first 2:30 seconds of the film why ruin it. Oh, and fellas, he is up for a roll in the hay with you as well. So don't feel left out.

If you couldn't tell from those quotes above Wilmot is a bit confident. Whether it is in your hatred for him or his confidence despite your hatred; however you look at it, he is confident and his confidence is fun to watch. While his drinking and womanizing are a means to an end with The Libertine, it is the love of a woman that gets the tale rolling as he takes on aspiring actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton). Barry becomes his project and his object of affection, or is it passion? On top of this fact he is also married to Elizabeth Malet played exceptionally well by Rosamund Pike, a young woman we are certain to see plenty more of and not in crappy films like Doom, films like Pride & Prejudice and this one will only be stepping stones in her career.

The Libertine reaches its peak as Wilmot is commissioned by his "friend" King Charles II (John Malkovich) to write a play to inspire the people of London. When Wilmot's play ends up a perverted abomination Wilmot is once again banished and his decline from high society begins.

You can look at The Libertine from many different angles and find something you will like. It could be a tale of morality, showing how womanizing and drinking will only set you on a path to destruction. Or, you could look at it from an acting standpoint as everyone turns in fantastic performances and Johnny Depp is at his most mischievous. Then again, you could look at it on a whole and you will find your flaws, but I could not be detered.

There are a series of bad edits and some questionable lighting issues as several scenes are only lit by candlelight. Personally the lighting issue didn't bug me at all, but I am sure some of your will be turned off by the method. As for the editing it certainly has its ups and downs, but the decision to leave in a scene where one of King Charles' pet spaniels takes a dump on the marble floor makes up for a few questionable cuts early on.

In terms of this DVD you will get a making of featurette that runs just over 30 minutes, a group of deleted scenes and a feature commentary. Of the bunch the deleted scenes do have something to offer, be sure to watch them with the director commentary on as you will learn of a particular aspect of the director's vision that never actually made the movie, a move I believe played a large part in some of the distasteful editing. The making of featurette is relatively entertaining, but after about 15 minutes it begins to wear thin and the feature length commentary smells of a director not used to doing commentaries as he has a hard time talking about anything other than what is on screen at that time.

Overall I enjoyed The Libertine. Primarily for Johnny Depp's performance as an unsavory character, roles I believe he was made to play seeing how he seems to have so much fun with the parts. The film does have its issues but for Depp fans I think this is a worthwhile buy.