The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) 2 stars out of 4
Randall Wallace's adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, more rightly should be called "The Boy in the Iron Mask." This is not a criticism of the acting ability of Leonardo DiCaprio, who assays the dual role of King Louis XIV and his twin brother, Phillippe.
It is based more on DiCaprio's physical appearance. As he has proven in such works as This Boy's Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Basketball Diaries, DiCaprio is a powerful screen presence.
Yet his boyish, almost effeminate, looks work against him in this costume drama. While he matter-of-factly displays King Louis' arrogance and cruelty, he seems to lack that inner strength, that regal bearing that sets a king apart from his subjects.
To his credit, DiCaprio creates two distinct personalities. His use of his eyes to distinguish between the cold king and his more compassionate twin is a fine piece of acting, but he is undercut by Wallace's script, which has the young actor mouthing some rather hoary dialogue.
Unfortunately, it is not only DiCaprio who suffers from Wallace's very loose reworking of the Alexander Dumas classic. This sequel to The Three Musketeers has been filmed many times before, dating back to one of Douglas Fairbanks' last swashbucklers in 1929.
While Wallace has kept the basic plot outline - the aging Three Musketeers plus D'Artagnan rescue the imprisoned twin of the young, cruel king of France, the writer of the Academy Award-winning Braveheart has added characters and subplots that probably would send Dumas spinning in his grave.
Wallace even has lifted a subplot from his earlier screenplay involving forbidden love between a commoner and a person of royalty.
Another of the film's problems is the conflicting acting styles between the four brilliant actors playing the over-the-hill "all-for-one-and-one-for-all" gang.
Gerard Depardieu, the only real Frenchman among the group, plays his Porthos much too broadly and comically, almost as if he studied Frank Finley's interpretation from Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers from the mid-1970s.
John Malkovich as Athos makes no attempt at an accent, speaking in his flat Midwestern tongue, but with the intensity and mannerisms he would bring to a contemporary work back at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.
Jeremy Irons as Aramis, of course, speaks with that upper-class English accent that immediately brings back memories of his vocal turn as Scar in Disney's The Lion King.
As D'Artagnan, Irish actor Gabriel Byrne seems content to merely sulk his way through the proceedings, interpreting most of his lines in a pained, whisper-like voice.
The biggest problem is a lack of chemistry among the quartet. These are men, legends, who have a lifelong camaraderie, but the audience needs to be constantly reminded of their glorious past through bits of dialogue because they are unable to create it through their performances.
To be fair, this latest screen version of a Dumas work is more appealing and better worked than the abominable Disney factory recreation of The Three Musketeers of a few years ago in which Chris O'Donnell, Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland were as believable as a group of high school students performing their fall drama.
DiCaprio fans won't be disappointed by The Man in the Iron Mask. Dressed in his kingly robes, the young actor will melt the heart of many a young teen, while there is enough swordplay and swashbuckling to keep their dates interested.
Overall, though, Wallace has taken too many liberties in trying to modernize a timeless classic that did not need any improvement.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews