Last night, I went to see Mortdecai with a friend at the cinema, and I was pleasantly surprised.
The film stars Johnny Depp as an English art dealer who runs into financial trouble and is recruited by Ewan McGregor to find a missing painting that has details on the back of a forgotten Nazi bank account said to contain plenty of gold.
Johnny Depp has on previous occasions put on an accent (as Police Inspector Frederick Abberline in From Hell (English) and as J.M Barrie in Finding Neverland (Scottish)) and it can be hard to fault. Here, Depp puts on a silly and posh accent which works for his character. Interspersed with his fancy ramblings are random mumbles that Mr Bean would be proud of.
And he was not the only actor in the film to put on an accent. A surprise addition to the cast was Paul Whitehouse, of The Fast Show fame, (once described by Depp as the ‘greatest actor of all time,’) who turned up as a European mechanic/art smuggler. Gwyneth Paltrow also puts on an English accent, while Ewan McGregor’s voice, to me, went from Scottish to English and back again throughout, just a bit dodgy.
There are many running gags throughout. For example, Paul Bettany, Depp’s manservant throughout the film, is shot three times by Mortdecai, and each is brushed off by the shooter, at one point simply with ‘Man down, man down.’ And each time, Bettany’s character, Jock, brushes it off by saying ‘Don’t worry sir, I have another…’ that another being a hand or finger etc. Mortdecai uses Jock for all his dirty work while he stands and admires his own moustache, another running joke. Mortdecai also leans on Jock a lot when he is in need of reassurance. Each time he asked ‘Will it be alright in the end Jock?’ Jock would answer with ‘It’s hard to say sir,’ and only towards the end of the film does Jock show annoyance by answering with ‘I don’t fucking know!’ Depp’s character, as well as being protected physically, also has a sense of naivety about him. Upon being told to ‘open your balls,’ he has no idea what to do, and Jock feigns innocence numerous times before telling Mortecai that he just does not want to tell the flamboyant and unaware art dealer. Jock is quite obviously played for the running jokes, as another is that he is very capable in the bedroom department, having slept with an angry farmer’s daughter and a new mother on an aeroplane (who after their dalliance in the toilet, went straight back to her husband and baby.) He was also the noisy distraction stopping his boss from having a snooze when they reached their LA hotel, casually telling his boss they would try to keep it down when asked, and loudly exclaiming ‘Done!’ not long after.
Back to the moustache… Mortdecai grew his moustache whilst he was away, and surprised his wife with it when they were reunited. A running joke throughout the entire film is that it makes her gag, thereby causing him to gag as well due to a gentle gag reflex. However, even for a film of this nature, the gagging looks unnatural and over the top.
The film is further laced with innuendos such as Mortdecai saying he did not know he was so ‘deep in her Majesty’s hole…’ upon being told he is in massive debt. There is also a scene in which Depp’s Jack Sparrow would wish he could take over the sword play. Mortdecai proves to be fairly useless with a sword, but pretty handy with a large arty hammer.
The film generally is fast-paced and silly, and is in no way meant to be taken seriously. Mortdecai has received some less than positive reviews, but this is quite obviously, upon watching it, not meant to be getting any of the big awards. Therefore, as a comedic film, it does well to make a viewer laugh (both in amusement and disgust.) The style of the film works well with the story, using a 3D style map when moving from one location to another, and the cast, which also includes Jeff Glodblum and Olivia Munn, has been well put together.
Overall… 3.5/5.
On Saturday, I’m off to see Shaun The Sheep Movie.. no doubt I will review that too.
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