This is biographical film about John Wilmot, aka the second Earl of Rochester (Johnny Depp). He was an incredibly talented poet but wasted his talent on wine and women. In the film, Rochester passionately loves the theatre and decides to train a particular actress to become the best in all of London. King Charles II (John Malkovich) calls upon him to write a play for the visit of the French ambassador. The play, A Satyr on Charles II, turns out to be a portrait of the King’s sexual behaviour at court. Rochester is banished, which is the beginning of his downfall.

The film starts with a bang: Johnny Depp (beautiful as ever, with long flowing locks), in close-up, talks directly to the audience saying, ‘Allow me to be frank at the commencement. You will not like me. The gentlemen will be envious and the ladies will be repelled…’. Johnny Depp has that look in his eyes that pierces right through you, he absolutely owns the speech, he delivers it with such candour that you hang upon his lips until his very last word.

Then, unfortunately, the movie starts. I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand it (I googled it afterwards…). The story is a bit all over the place. It has no real flow and I lost interest quite early on. The cinematography tries to be beautiful, like a painting, but is often underlit. Depp is, of course, great but John Malkovich’s role is really too small to show off his wonderful talent. The side characters all look the same and could easily have been a single person.

Stephen Jeffreys wrote the original theatre play and the screenplay for this film. I wonder if he was pleased with the end result of the film. John Malkovich acted as Rochester in the play, but chose to be Charles II in the film. It is Laurence Dunmore’s first feature film (which came out in 2004 and he hasn’t done anything since…), so I guess he can be forgiven for not getting it quite right.

If you are an absolute Johnny Depp fan then go and see it (I guess in this case you already have…) but otherwise I wouldn’t bother. It had potential but it really turned out rather dull.