Our Flick of the Week is yet another remake of “The Man in the Iron Mask,” the Alexander Dumas story about replacing King Louis XIV with his imprisoned twin brother. But if the producers of the film had been more savvy in their marketing, they would have named it “Leonardo DiCaprio’s New Film.”
Alas, even the nation’s heartthrob, a fine actor, does not save a film that has too much swashbuckling and not enough character development. In 1939, the vastly underrated director James Whale (“Frankenstein,” “Dracula”) directed a rousing version of the Dumas novel about duplicity at the royal level and the heroic efforts of the Musketeers to do right by the people of France.
The action and dungeon sequences dominate this complicated tale, (with a powerful lineup of Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu and Gabriel Byrne) and we can’t help but long for quieter moments. What is effective are extended dialogue scenes such as the one where D’Artagnan (Byrne) questions the King about how he can ever know if a woman loves him or the crown he wears. A woman (Judith Godreche) who has drawn his attention provides the agonized love interest.
DiCaprio acts as well as one can in a dual role that literally envelops him in costumes. But the swordplay here seems generic in a film that too often seems all frosting and no cake. PG-13. (star) (star) 1/2
– THE LEADING MAN. A romantic rondelay with a young actor (Jon Bon Jovi) offering to seduce an older colleague’s wife so that the older playwright (Lambert Wilson) can leave her more easily and continue his affair with a young actress (Thandie Newton). This is the latest effort from the fine Australian director John Duigan (“Flirting,” “Wide Sargasso Sea,” “Sirens”), and it’s his first film that’s been less than impressive. The mechanics of the plot dominate. R. (star) (star) 1/2
– LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND. A strange story about an effete man of letters (John Hurt) who lives as a 19th Century scholar but has his life transformed by a chance encounter with a tawdry motion picture, “Hotpants College 2.” Walking into the wrong theater in a multiplex, he becomes enamored of the young male star of the film, a TV heartthrob named Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestly), and ends up renting more of his films and arranging a meeting. The passion of this quest is thoroughly entertaining in a most original story. PG-13. (star) (star) (star)
More Top Picks Sneaker
– MEAN STREETS. A 25th anniversary re-issue of Martin Scorsese’s first great film, a saga of growing up in an Italian hood, if you will, and the rites of passage there. The classic Scorsese themes are present: The challenge of Catholicism, the conflict between good girls and bad, and violence as a too-ready solution to male problems. With Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. R. (star) (star) (star) (star)
– = New this week