Review of Mortdecai (2015) by Quincytheodore — 16 Feb 2015

There's an alarming trend of steady decline in quality of Johnny Deep's movies. He performs to his strength as quirky characters, but his recent movies haven't been optimal even with the help of talented cast. Mortdecai is probably the worst of the bunch, an insipid action comedy that fails in creating sophisticated humor, needlessly complicated and above all, dangerously boring.

Mortdecai (Johnny Deep) is a shady art dealer who allegedly dabbles on illegal activities. After several mishandled dealings he suffers quite a significant loss, which pushes him near the brink of bankruptcy. At the same time an art heist occurs, Mortdecai is serendipitously involved in the case. He uses this chance to slither a profit out of the situation. The premise is set for intellect crime with a touch of comedy, but it accomplishes neither as Mortdecai is too placid to be taken seriously and too dull to be amusing.

The movie also brings a strong line-up of actors, such as Paul Bettany, Ewan McGregor and Gwyneth Paltrow. However, the material makes their characters one dimensional. Script often invests too much on particular scenes or rehearses the same joke far too many times, while skimming on development of the case. It makes the pacing plods on some areas and leaves plot holes on the rest.

Dialogues are intricate, yet these suave words might not work and may even come off as shallow. It relies heavily on vulgar tone, but its funnier moments are from slapstick, much thanks to Deep and Bettany. Deep's staple appeal is from his exaggerated motion, he does try to personify Mortdecai but the character itself is too corny and lacking charisma. Paul Bettany is a flexible actor, bulk of his previous characters consist of brooding men, but he looks comfortable in a more relaxed persona even moonlighting as comedy relief.

It's hard to recommend Mortdecai, the movie, just like the character, is not as charming and clever as it thinks it is. Audience can probably get a few laughs if they set their expectation really low, but that shouldn't happen with such assembly of capable stars.