Review of The Libertine (2004) by André D — 23 Nov 2009

What I don't understand is all of the negativity of a lot of the comments I've read nearly everywhere about this movie... it's nearly biographical of John Wilmot and his life, his work, his character. It's not some fantastical, debauched tale of some made up character meant only to shock... it's a story about a period in time when life *wasn't* pretty, a place and people where things like this were commonplace; but that "normalcy" from then translates somehow into "gross, immoral, etc" now - and that was the POINT of this whole movie and what I think, of the man's entire life. From what I've read, seen in this movie, and read of his work, his whole life could have been summed up in him saying "This is life... ain't it grand..?" with a hella dry, sardonic look on his face.

Looking into that mindset, that cynicism, that *person*, and seeing something you don't like is one thing - hell, it's the point of the movie if you pay attention to the monologue at the beginning and the end. His character doesn't WANT people to like him or justify his actions - only to accept that it happens and that it's real whether it's attractive or not. The movie did it's job there.

But to trash an entire movie, the actors, the director - because you think the subject matter is dry and dull? It's just ignorant - in the truest sense of the word. The movie's purpose was to reenact this period of time, the play it's based on, and the person it was originally written to portray. It did it's job, and it did it well. To me, regardless of how "distasteful" the subject matter might be, or how "disgusting" a lot of the scenes were, that constitutes a good movie.

I have also seen a comment or two about it being "disappointing" for lack of graphic content - and people taking the other side of the coin saying that it doesn't portray him well ENOUGH because of that. I agree to an extent... but I also feel that in today's world that was partially necessary to get the point across without having too much unnecessary stuff distracting the viewer. Any MORE graphic, and this movie would have failed to make its point and would instead have had many people only watching it for the bawdy shock value; and, taking nothing else from it.

Overall I felt that this movie was amazing - bawdy enough to catch your attention from the beginning, blunt enough to keep it going throughout, written well enough to even seem beautiful at times, acted well enough to draw you into that world, and directed well enough to make you think long after its end. Which in my opinion, is a perfect description of John himself; and, as I stated earlier, this seemed to be Wilmot personified - and therefore to me, made this a good movie.