When it comes to the stars of the silent era I must admit that I do not have a lot of knowledge about them and haven’t seen too many of their movies. Last year was the first time I saw a Buster Keaton (The General, which is one of the most amazing movies involving a train) or Charlie Chaplin movie. The first Chaplin movie I saw was actually a “talkie”, The Great Dictator which I absolutely loved and gave a 10. After this I wanted to see more of his movies (have seen City Lights, The Gold Rush and The Kid), but still love that movie the most. I didn’t know anything about Charlie Chaplin when he wasn’t in front of the camera and this biopic about the man filled in that blank.
The movie shows how he grew up, how he ended up in the movies and the drive this man had. George Hayden (Anthony Hopkins) interviews a very old Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.), who has written.a book about his life. Hayden tries to clear up a couple of things and through flashbacks the viewer gets to experience his life. I learned quite a lot of interesting things, like the issues he had with J. Edgar Hoover, who constantly tried to link him to communism. I also didn’t know that he went through several marriages, according to the movie because he was so obsessed with making great films. It was fascinating stuff to watch and has quite a lot of slapstick moments that were very enjoyable.
Robert Downey Jr. plays the iconic actor and does a good job of copying his style of acting as shown in various slapstick bits. It earned him an Oscar nomination (which he lost to Al Pacino for his role in Scent of a Woman). I also liked the fact that some of Chaplin’s big movies were part of this movie, like The Kid, City Lights and The Great Dictator. The one thing I did thing could have improved this movie is a longer running time. Some parts felt rushed and I really had the feeling this hurt the story a bit.
Score: 7
Downey’s performance was very good but the rest of the film just felt uneven, a little bit disjointed, and a bit messy. The ending was a nice touch but by that point, the film already practically lost me. Nice review Nostra.
Like I mention in the review I think it would have been better with a longer running time.
All the success Chaplin as a film has is due to Downey’s great performance.
Yeah, don’t know which other actor would have been able to pull it off like he did…
Every time I watch Chaplin I’m always astounded by Robert Downey’s performance. Even though, as you say, it is an impersonation, I think he does an almost perfect job.
I have always wanted to watch the movie. Do you know how accurate it is? If it is quite accurate I shall give it a go, but if there is too much controversy around it, then I might give it a miss.
I have no idea how accurate it is, but you do learn a lot if you don’t know much about his life.
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