Review of The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) by Matthew H — 05 Aug 2013

Written and directed by Randall Wallace, and loosely adapted from Alexandre Dumas' The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, which was serialised between 1847 and 1850. This is a very dumbed down version of history, despite the good intentions of Wallace, who is no stranger to dumbing down history with Braveheart and Pearl Harbor.

It's set during the reign of Louis XIV of France (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is nothing more than a tyrant, bankrupting the country with unwinnable wars. The Three Musketeers are now old and have retired, Aramis (Jeremy Irons) has turned to religion, Porthos (Gérard Depardieu) visits brothels a lot and Athos (John Malkovich) has a son called Raoul (Peter Sarsgaard), only D'Artagnan (Gabriel Byrne) works in the King's court.

Unhappy with the way the country is turning out, they all agree to try and overthrow the King Louis, with his twin brother Philippe (DiCaprio again), who has spent much of his life imprisoned in an iron mask.

This is to save the country from self-destructing, and that the Musketeers can advise Philippe as Louis, but nothing goes according to plan. It was a good idea for a film, yet there's not enough Musketeer action either, it's mostly costumes and old dialogue.

But it looks good, and it follows the structure of James Whale's 1939 film version of this story, DiCaprio struggles in the dual role, and it would be a few years before he matured as an actor.