Review of Mortdecai (2015) by Englishscribble — 27 Jun 2015

Despite the bad press I have found this an incredibly enjoyable film, as a fan of the Bonfiglioli novels, I found that whilst the film took liberties with the plot it was true to the spirit and flavour of the original books. Many of the the gags that I have seen criticised in the professional reviews are intact straight , word for word lifts from the novels. I do find it quite annoying the professional film critics write a bout a film based on a novel without bothering to first read the novel. Many films of this ilk are hammered for NOT being true to the original and this one is being panned for doing so, damned if one does damned of one doesn't. I understand that this film will probably be completely incomprehensible to most American audiences, and one criticism that I do have is that the film is weakened by the attempts to make it more accessible, the producers should I believe have gone all out and made a film for British audiences and hopped that it transferred (" Four Weddings", "Downton Abby", etc).

Depp's Terry Thomas inspired interpretation of Mortdecai, is actually a much pleasanter character than the original, and in the books Johanna was actually a jewish American, not the frightfully English pseudo Sloane portrayed by GP. I was disappointed by Ewan Mcgregor's Martland at times for an actor of his caliber his inability to produce a convincing English Public School accent was surprising. Paltrow who is an American does a better job.

I did overall though enjoy the film, but less pandering to American audiences would have made it a much better film, it's almost as if the producers started out on the right track and then lost their bottle. It did though make me go back and re read the originals a long forgotten pleasure.