Saturday 9 May 2015

Mordecai - Depp's a hoot

A debonair art dealer and part time rogue must recover a stolen painting juggling the Russian mob, Mi5 and an international terrorist.

To get the most out David Koepp's Mordecai you probably have to be familiar with the sub- genre crime fiction caper story. Acclaimed screenplay writer Koepp takes up the directing chair in this throwback contemporary set heist caper. Johnny Depp does his best impression of English comedian and character actor Terry Thomas with a hint of David Niven and Peter Sellers thrown in.

Based on Kyril Bonfiglioli novel Eric Aronson screenplay the narrative needless meanders in places, but it's all good fun especially when Depp seemingly appears to be ad-libbing. As with Depp's overlooked and debatably unfairly judged The Tourist (2010) which encompassed the spirit of Hitchcock and other classic thrillers Mordecai goes about to do the same. It's has that British comedic action style that viewers will either appreciate where it's coming from or they won't. As a homage it works perfectly, with its ongoing gags, fisticuffs and one liners.

There's some great, set, costumes, global locations and nice comedic action set ups throughout, most of which feature Paul Bettany's hard man Jock, Mordecai's Pink Panther's Kato like man servant. Bettany pulls the character off with ease and brings to life a role that would usually go to a nobody actor.

The supporting cast are an array of familiar faces including the likes of UK's Paul White House doing his worst Italian accent and USA's Jeff Goldblum to name a few. Gwyneth Paltrow is delightful as the typical aristocrat wife, Ewan McGregor is on form looking as if he's auditioning for James Bond and curly moustached Depp is a hoot.

Granted it's predicable and some of the gags fall short but Koepp still offers guilty, glitzy fun especially when viewed in the context of the genre its emulating.

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