DON JUAN DeMARCO. Directed and written by Jeremy Leven; produced by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Fuchs and Patrick Palmer for New Line Cinema. Starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando. Rated PG-13.
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I have always considered myself something of a romantic, especially when it comes to movies. So I was looking forward to seeing Don Juan DeMarco. The ads make it look like a real celebration of romance, with a little quirkiness added in for extra spice.
Well, it turns out to be just plain silly.
Depp is a treat to watch (and listen to, at least for a while) as a young mental patient who seems delusional, believing himself to be THE legendary lover Don Juan. But maybe he really is. He does have a oddly disruptive, yet pleasant, effect on the hospital's staff. Especially the females, but his psychiatrist (Brando) doesn't seem to be immune, either.
The best romantic comedies let the romance well up naturally, through the interactions of the characters, who usually have an energetic chemistry together. Don Juan DeMarco, however, lays the romance on with a trowel, through imaginative stories of "Don Juan's" mysterious past and through a contrived, supposed awakening of the psychiatrist's repressed romantic leanings.
This heavy-handed approach to the movie's major theme is at odds with its sensual but lighthearted visual style and its often witty script. The interplay, for example, between the Don Juan persona and his character's apparent awareness of his true surroundings result in some amusing dialogue. But these islands of humor are too easily swamped by the rough seas of our trying to believe Brando growing kittenish (when he doesn't quite seem to believe it himself) and by the increasingly out-of-focus main story.
It's not that Brando can't play light comedy. He was quite entertaining in The Freshman, a few years ago; but in that movie he was just doing a parody of his Godfather character. Here he's just not on the same wacky wavelength as Depp, even when he's supposedly being taken in by the whole Don Juan mystique.
If any of the other characters in the movie were as interesting as Depp's, Don Juan DeMarco would be a much different, and much better movie. But as it is, they all just fade away into the background (although it's hard to imagine Brando in the background, believe me, it happens) and all we're left with is Depp's sweet, yet very flimsy story.
Some moviegoers, particularly fans of Depp, might find Don Juan DeMarco's sporadic wit sufficient to make the movie enjoyable. But for me, it wasn't enough to outweigh the outrageous, repetitive, and disjointed storyline. Not to mention the silliness of the whole affair.
May 3, 1995