Man In The Iron Mask
Leonardo DiCaprio certainly took his sweet time after Titanic to enable himself some on the job training so that he may improve as an actor by working with names like Scorsese and Spielberg, but this 1998 effort done in the afterglow of the sinking ship epic came at the height of his popularity with teenage girls (and the hateful backlash from men everywhere). Cast as King Louis XIV of France, DiCaprio put his privileged pretty boy image to great use here, playing His Majesty as a smug, conceited, hateful little shit, even as his acting still remained rather wooden at this time, while as his kindly imprisoned twin brother Philippe, he summons the dewy-eyed soulfulness that worked in overdrive as Jack Dawson. However, director Randall Wallace (riding good vibes after writing Braveheart) smartly surrounds him with a prestigious all-star supporting cast and allows them to carry the film on his behalf, mostly taking on the roles of the legendary original Musketeers with interesting results: Jeremy Irons as the pious Aramis brings plenty of gravitas as he hatches the plan to switch the king with his twin which only he knows about; John Malkovich belts out his lines as the embittered Athos but still brings it as only Malkovich can do; Gerald Depardieu stumbles through the role of the bumbling Porthos, and lets through only a few glimpses of his greatness like in many of his English language roles; Gabriel Byrne as DāArtagnan brings a soulful quality as he is torn between loyalty to his king and loyalty to his comrades; Anne (La Femme Nikita) Parillaud as the Queen Mother is a bit young to be DiCaprioās mother but pulls through nonetheless; Peter Sarsgaard essays the part of Athosā ill-fated son; and even Hugh (House) Laurie shows up briefly as a royal kissass. Whatās bizarre and jarring at times is the way all the actors speak in their own native dialect, whether it be the Americans DiCaprio and Malkovich or the British Irons or the Irish Byrne, with only Depardieu and Parillaud coming off as authentic since they ARE actually French and thusly bring their French accents to the proceedings. In addition, the script makes the mistake of including some real groaners in the dialogue (āI am KING, ordained by GOD!ā), but most of the actors manage to act their way out of it and keep things afloat. Thereās certainly a lavishness on display with the costumes and sets as Wallace portrays the socialist-like society of 1600s France where intellectual and upper-class elites live in opulent splendor while the rest of the underclass starves to death and cause riots in the streets. Whatās more fascinating is the true life story of the Iron Mask itself, as there WAS a real-life prisoner kept in the Bastille whose identity was unknown and his face kept hidden, which in turn was used to create this legend by Voltaire and later by Alexandre Dumas who interpreted it as the third chapter of his Musketeers trilogy from which this film was adapted from. The theme that the greatest and toughest defenders of the French King must choose to do what is right at the risk of betrayal is a potent one, and the story moves along briskly without ever grinding to a halt. Overall, while not the greatest DiCaprio performance, at least it was one where he had plenty of backupā¦
7/10