Desperate for a Heath Ledger fix this weekend I had a choice….classical cleavage or cowboy love. It was a struggle but I went with my heart and chose Chocolat director Lasse Hallstrom’s latest film, Casanova. The film is Hollywood’s latest retelling of the exploits of Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova.
The story is a fairly simple one, Casanova (Heath Ledger) wanted by women throughout Venice for his famed skill at love and hunted by the Roman Catholic Inquisitors for the same reason, meets his match in fiesty feminist Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller). Casanova is ordered to marry to protect himself from the punishment of the church and decides on the virginal Victoria (played by newcomer Natalie Dormer whose brief opening meeting with Casanova is wonderfully comical). He then meets Francesca Bruni who is herself engaged to a man she has never met, wealthy lard magnate Paprizzio (Oliver Platt). Casanova assumes another identity to woo fair Francesca, not knowing she has a secret of her own. In fact Casanova assumes many differing identities throughout the film which is the basis for the film’s comic antics. And essentially this is what Casanova is, a period comedy.
The performances run from adequate to terrific. If you like Heath Ledger then you will enjoy him in this. His best work of this type for me continues to be A Knight’s Tale but I think he did a great job with the material given to him. Sienna Miller is very convincing as the beautiful, independent and headstrong Francesca Bruni. This is the first movie I’ve seen her in and I enjoyed her performance. Lena Olin was enjoyable in the role of Francesca’s mother. Her performance in Chocolat was wonderful and it is a shame she is not given better material in Casanova. Despite this she turns in a very fun performance. Jeremy Irons fills the pivotal role of Grand Inquisitor Pucci and does a great job being the comic villain. By far Oliver Platt steals the show as Paprizzio. Prosthetically enhanced to enormous proportions he is also larger than life in the handling of his character. He is very funny and at times also very heroic. More than any other character you find yourself rooting for Paprizzio and his obvious desire for love. The movie is worth seeing if only to enjoy Platt’s performance.
Despite the fact that the real Giacomo Casanova was not only a famed lover, but a politician, secretary to a cardinal, violinist, magician, author, etc. this film covers the period of time detailed in volume three of his 16 volume memoirs and plays up the comic antics of a man juggling mutliple identities in order to keep one step ahead of the law. It is perhaps the insistence on making this a comedy that will keep this film from becoming a classic. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but given the caliber of cast and crew Hallstrom could have done so much more. Chocolat works as a period romance because the humor is subtle and interlaced with a great deal of drama. Casanova is played like many sexually charged period pieces are, as a slightly bawdy farce. I do not fully understand the “R” rating. There is no nudity and though sexual inuendo is aplenty it was no more than many PG-13 movies I have seen in the past. This was not American Pie with corsets. The casual attitude towards sex that is displayed by Casanova combined with the treatment of the Catholic church is probably what earned this film its rating.
If you are in the mood for a fun, period-based romantic comedy with a slightly more adult nature then I would recommend seeing Casanova. The settings and costumes are wonderful and more than anything are what draws me to seeing films of this type in the theatre over waiting for the DVD. Casanova however doesn’t have the depth of story that makes it a must see on the big screen. I did not have high expectations primarily due to the lack of adverstising for the film and Casanova met what expectations I did have. It was filled with action, romance and was much funnier than I thought it would be but does not have the emotional resonance that will make me want to watch it over and over again. For my first theatre movie of 2006 I would give Casanova 3 out of 5 stars, and Oliver Platt’s performance 5 out of 5 stars.
Carl, one of my customers saw this and enjoyed it very much. Hope you do too!
It is Sunday evening… oh yeah, time difference 😉
Really looking forward to Casanova, Heath Ledger was wonderful in Brokeback Mountain.
while this is all well and good, i want follow-up on the following comment from you a few days ago:
Change is in the wind…good change. The Uberlist is part of this change.
what’s going on? i need some more excitement in my life. tell us already. (make a statement in a public forrum, you can only expect a public response!)
so come on, tell us what’s going on!!
I saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday afternoon and OMG was Heath Ledger fantastic! Then I read People magazine this morning and saw that he was nominated for a Golden Globe for that performance (and Cillian Murphy was nominated for Breakfast on Pluto as well, another amazing performance!).
cool.. hope it was good!
i finally saw The Producers this weekend, and laughed til i cried!
I lovelovelove Oliver Platt! Thanks for the review, I’m definitely going to see this one!
i’ll have to check it out when it gets to DVD… which seeing the current trend shouldn’t even be 6 months away.
Not sure I’ll go see Casanova, but I can’t wait for Brokeback Mountain.
where is carl in all of this? what’s he doing?
(angela, the industry standard has now become 4 months until a dvd release! it’s crazy…that’s why box office si so down i think, why would we pay to go see many so-so movies when we gan see them at home for cheaper?)
oops.. misspelt word in my entry (the calendar column ends up blocking part of what i type. happen to the rest of you too?)
though i did take spanish (with carl. we were very sad in it.) and “si” is about the extent of what i retain.
I do occasionally have to work and can’t be on the blog….hard to believe, I know!!! At least we learned how to make a good breakfast in Spanish class….or was that when we ditched Spanish class and ran into the professor in the elevator on our way to go off campus minutes before class was supposed to start???
Sounds like a good fun film. I’ve been a fan of Heath’s since A Knight’s Tale, and even before that I caught him a few times in the oh-so-terrible tv series Roar. He gives good acting 🙂
The first thing I saw him in was 10 Things I Hate About You and I really enjoyed him in that.
I enjoyed many parts of the movie especially Paprizzio’s character; however, I am tired of these stories where the guy is a first class rake but changes his ways overnight for the love of a good woman. How realistic is that? The story goes on to make those who would oppose his lifestyle look idiotic. Casanova spends his life sleeping with different women each night, many of them married, and now we are to think realistically of him and his desire to remain true to his new love? The humor did not outweigh the illogical message to me.
SPOILER: Parts of the movie were based on his life, but I don’t think he ran away with his true love and left his brother-in-law to be the new Casanova. So, although I laughed and enjoyed parts of the movie, I just couldn’t recommend it. Perhaps my opinion is jaded because my 13 year old really, really, really wanted to see the movie which I watched with an eye to see if I would let her watch it.
don’t worry, Scott. i knew what you meant.. and yes, this box doesn’t extend all the way when i’m typing either. or at least it didn’t till today. fix something, Carl?
and it only took 3 months for Serenity to go to DVD, tho that was limited release & didn’t do well in theaters.
10 Things I Hate About You is a great teenie-bop movie. that’s still my favorite film Ledger has been in.
And Mary, they portray a lot of men like that in movies (Someone Like You springs to mind).. they’re playboys that fall in love & all the sudden we’re supposed to believe they change their ways. sorry, but that’s not attractive to me. but then, decent morals are seldom shown in a good light.
The box thing is an issue because I liked the framework of this theme (though I’ve changed the design a great deal) that someone made for the beta version of WordPress…when they updated I wanted to keep this theme and there are a few wonky problems with it. They’ve just updated WordPress to 2.0 and I need to get past my reluctance and download it and look for a theme that I like. That would hopefully eliminate this and other problems.
fence… my wife and I also saw some of the short lived Roar tv series. Sci-fi channel runs little mini-Roar marathons sometimes still. I think it only lasted 6 to 9 episodes. We did enjoy Heath’s sidekick on the series quite a bit though. He was a tall fellow with a droppy mustache, can’t remember his name though. He did a great job in his role as for the plots for the episodes well that’s another story. 🙂
Great review! Casanova is one of my favorite films.. Heath is just so good in it, and Venizzia at this time is enjoyable don’t you think ?! =)