At the start of “The Libertine,” Johnny Depp suggests the improbable.
“I do not want you to like me,” he says. You will not like me, he insists.
If by “me” he means himself – he doesn’t, or course- then he’s wrong. Even in this minor movie that aims high with naughty material, it’s hard not to admire Depp’s gifts. They are on fine display as he goes from randy to syphilitic, handsome to hideous.
If Depp means his character – and, of course, he does – then he has a point.
John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester, is certain of his effect. And one quickly learns that this ignoble nobleman takes great pleasure in pleasure, but even more joy in offense.
Finally, if that “me” refers not just to the anti-hero taunting us so casually but to this tale about his rise, ruin and redemption in the 17th century, he’s righter still.
There is a willful muck and murk to “The Libertine,” directed by first-timer Laurence Dunmore. Darkness meets dankness everywhere. But the visual language Dunmore and cinematographer Alexander Melman use doesn’t merely evoke the authentic grime of the period. It provides an apt metaphor for the movie’s problems.
“The Libertine” is a shadowy mess that throws weak light on a little-known historical figure.
Rochester may have been a cultural visionary, but the movie reduces this notion to a parable of bad-boy celebrity hitched to an uninteresting love story.
Writer Stephen Jeffreys (who adapted his play for screen) wants us to see Rochester’s creativity as subversive. But too often, the earl’s behavior seems merely neurotic.
Rochester wrote poems that still find their way into anthologies. He penned an infamous play called “Sodom or the Quintessence of Debauchery.” Privy to his doodles, we have little doubt what captured his imagination.
The earl abducted Elizabeth Malet, a young heiress. Charles II tossed him in the Tower of London. Upon release, Rochester married the woman, played by Rosamund Pike.
He curried the favor and friendship of Charles II, which he squandered time and again. Early on, Charles (John Malkovich) inquires how long Rochester has been in exile. He sent him away for a year but already misses him.
But Rochester is pathologically driven to gnaw the hands that feed and stroke him. He cheats on his wife. He betrays her more deeply when he falls for actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton).
Barry became famous, and Morton plays her as a surer soul than Claire Danes’ character in “Stage Beauty,” a better film set in the same era.
It’s not just Malkovich’s presence here that will invite comparison to another, better film: Stephen Frears’ “Dangerous Liaisons” is the more entertaining and emotionally telling period piece full of lust, betrayal and a love that undoes the would-be sexual conqueror.
Intended to seduce, revile and resonate, “The Libertine” tires. If not for Depp and Malkovich, there would be nary a pearl peeking through the mud.
** | “The Libertine”
R for strong sexuality including dialogue, violence and language|1 hour, 50 minutes| PERIOD DRAMA|Directed by Laurence Dunmore; written by Stephen Jeffreys based on his play; photography by Alexander Melman; starring Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Johnny Vegas, Kelly Reilly, Jack Davenport, Richard Coyle |Opens today at area theaters.
