Film

Don Juan DeMarco (1995)

Director: Jeremy Leven

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Depp is Don Juan. Or is he? He claims to be the world's greatest lover - at 21, to have seduced more than a thousand women - but in his cape and mask, he looks more like the world's greatest loony tune. Retiring psychiatrist Jack Mickler (Brando) has ten days to figure the kid out, to commit him or recommend his release. Juan is a charmer, but how do his picaresque tales of love in Mexico and the East square with the few known facts: the father who died in an auto accident, the mother who turned to religion in her grief? Mickler isn't sure, but his patient's romantic vision of the world proves highly infectious. Written and directed by novelist and former psychiatrist Leven, this is a slight, likeable comedy (despite inelegant camerawork and a somewhat slack pace) trading heavily on the emotional pull of its stars. It's a joy to see Brando throwing himself into the spirit of the thing, ardently courting his perplexed wife of 30 years, a ravished Dunaway (they share a lovely five-minute bed scene - in one, uninterrupted take). And not many young actors would (or could) have played the purity and innocence of Don Juan with Depp's sensitivity (especially as such obvious centrefold-types are cast as his conquests). His soft, Castillian lilt and natural elegance are well-nigh irresistible.

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