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(More customer reviews)If you're anything like me, the almost semi-annual relapse and recovery of Robert Downey Jr. has been an interesting periodic feature of the morning news. After a while one begins to question why does Hollywood put up with him when there is no shortage of talented actors desperately trying to make it in Hollywood? Why would producers and studios, who are so financially dependent on their productions going off without a hitch, take yet another chance on Robert Downey, Jr? Then I saw Chaplin, and I understood.
The intensity and power of the Robert Downey's performance in this film is the stuff of Oscars and true movie legend! It's both a beautiful performance and a beautiful film!
Somehow Sir Richard Attenborough got out of Downey the kind of performance that can sustain a career, and a legend. But Sir Richard's mastery didn't stop there. He got spectacular performance out of everyone, including a young, pre-X-Files David Duchovny. (I know I misspelled that. But you know who I mean.)
In summation, Robert Downey's performance is every bit the equal of James Dean's in Giant, East of Eden or Rebel without a Cause, and maybe that's what we should keep in mind. For unlike Dean, another self-destructive personality, Robert Downey has not driven off the cliff yet, and hopefully he never will.
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Chaplin [1992] / Region 3 NTSC DVD / Audio: English, Thai / Subtitle: English, Thai / Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Paul Rhys, John Thaw / Director: Richard Attenborough / 135 minutesChaplin, Sir Richard Attenborough's biographical film of the life and times of the famous comic, is a little thin as a narrative, but it is so charmingly creative and ultimately moving that it's hard to worry about the deficits. Robert Downey Jr does an excellent job re-creating Chaplin's graceful slapstick and getting inside the silent-film superstar's head over the years of triumph, defeat, scandal, official persecution, exile and inner peace. A huge cast portray the allies, friends, lovers and enemies in Chaplin's life, including Moira Kelly as his final, long-time wife Oona, Kevin Kline as Douglas Fairbanks, Geraldine Chaplin as Charlie's mother and James Woods as a prosecutor working hard to nail Chaplin for anti-American sentiments. Attenborough declines to tell the story in a flat, linear way, employing such clever techniques as detailing one chapter in Chaplin's life as a silent comedy. The climactic scene set at an Oscar tribute for Chaplin will get the tears flowing. --Tom Keogh
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