Review of Mortdecai (2015) by Keith W — 24 Jan 2015
Johnny Depp leads an all star cast back in time with Mortdecai. The film is offbeat, strange, and purposefully loud and zany recalling shades of Peter Sellers from The Pink Panther with Depp putting on his best Inspector Clouseau impression.
The film works best when the entire cast is in the mix, but when Depp is alone left to his own devices the film feels like its drowning in shallow water. Huge praise goes to Paul Bettany who steals every scene, especially his one on ones with Depp.
Director David Koepp commits to the film's offbeat pace and structure for better or for worse. When the film's comedy works it works with laugh out loud results, when it doesn't it leads us all to think "What the hell is happening to Johnny Depp's career?" This peculiar film is a hard one to score only due to one's tolerance for off beat humor and gags that are not as smart as Wes Anderson and don't necessarily lean into Paul Blart slapstick.
It feels dated but refreshingly throwback and for that I enjoyed myself. It could have been funnier but one has to commend Koepp, Depp, and the rest of the cast for fully committing to this zany globe-trotting caper.
This review of Mortdecai (2015) was written by Keith W on 24 Jan 2015.
Mortdecai has generally received negative reviews.
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