Blu-ray Review: Comedy Caper MORTDECAI With Johnny Depp And An All Star Cast Is Great Fun
In recent years Johnny Depp’s performances have become synonymous with silly costumes and even sillier accents. Both of these affectations are present and correct in Mortdecai but they add to the film’s overall general over-the-top tone. David Koepp’s film is a romp but it’s a fun one that strives (and succeeds) to entertain. This may not be the greatest film of the year but it must be the most fun.
Depp is Charles Mortdecai, an English Lord and art expert who is facing financial ruin and his wife (Gwyenth Paltrow) who is getting ready to leave him because he has grown a colossal moustache. He’s given a lifeline (financially, at least) when his old love rival Inspector Alistair Martland (Ewan McGregor) asks for his assistance in tracking down a stolen Goya painting. Mortdecai sets off with his trusty manservant Jock (Paul Bettany) to turn his circumstances around and win back the affections of his wife.
Mortdecai works because everyone is engaged in the material. It’s totally ridiculous of course but the A-list cast fully embrace the film’s far-fetched tone and make it worth your time. Depp hasn’t been this watchable in years, while Ewan McGregor delivers a winning James Bond audition – if the Brocolli family ever decide to return to the camp tone of the Roger Moore era. This is pastiche, a film that has its heart set in London during the swinging 60s but the crisp visuals are set in the present day. The shadow of The Avengers looms large over Koepp’s film but it also owes a debt to the 1934 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man. However, if Mortdecai has a recent cinematic relative it’s Bruce Willis’ notorious 1991 film Hudson Hawk. Both are zany ‘60s influenced caper movies set in the art world, produced by their stars – and both bombed at the box office.
In a time when expensive franchise pictures are the order of the day, it’s good to see a slick, old fashioned studio comedy filled with top tier actors. It may never have connected with its intended audience and a $30 million global gross and terrible reviews denotes it didn’t, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching. Mortdecai’s biggest crime may be that it set out to entertain – and it does that – in spades.
Mortdecai is destined to become a cult favourite – just Johnny Depp’s before he became Jack Sparrow.
Special Features
Mortdecai comes with a solid set of extras. You get the usual trailers, while Stolen Moments: On the Set of Mortdecai shows the making of the film with interviews and The Art of Noise: Making Music for Mortdecai puts the focus on composter Geoff Zanelli.
