Don Juan DeMarco (1994)

Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come to Don Juan De Marco (1994)Depp's performance is a must see. In Edward Scissorhands, Benny & Joon and What's Eating Gilbert Grape he showed the talent an actor needs to slip into the darkness of the soul and find comedy there. Like both of those films, this one deals with mental illness: Depp plays a character who is convinced he is Don Juan, the world's greatest lover. He gets other people to believe it, too, in dialogue that maybe only Depp could have delivered it, with his big soulful, expressive eyes. He must be one of the few actors who can get away with sincerely speaking the dialogue in this movie, dressed like he is, but he does. Like with Edward Scissorhands and Benny & Joon he is both touching and more importantly totally convincing. Brando sleepwalks through this movie on autopilot in a bloted, self-indulgent performance, mumbling his dialogue so badly its often inaudible, no one else could have gotten away with this performance. In the 50's he proved he can be one of the best actors in movie history, by the time he phoned this one in, he was proving he could be one of the worst. When he is told "You've been phoning it in for ages now". The irony is not lost. He totally spoils the movie. It's your quirky, oddball Depp movie that I love, and he drags it down, sapping all the fun out of it. There are certain parallels with Brando then and the Depp of the last 10 years, that is too obvious to ignore. Both seemingly became very bored with acting after becoming stupidly popular, and then began phoning it in, in paycheck movies!!Like Benny & Joon, this movie also had a hit single attached to it. The Bryan Adams track Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?I would have ranked it 8/10, but it loses a point for Brando.Don Juan Demarco was not a hit at the domestic box office. It was the 74th highest grossing movie of the year, with a domestic haul of $22 million against a $25 million budget.

I don't really wanna comment deeply about the movie's technical side and all. All I would say is that at the end,.it got me wanting to live in my own dreams.Why let the cruel facts eat you and your life up.Live the way we wish. Love with all heart!.Romanticism isn't that bad,is it?!.No one in the movie requires special comment about their acting.They were marvelous..Sometimes in your life you need to let the imaginations take you away. Tweak your perspectives a bit. Widen your gaze and look beyond what you see. The movie presents these ideas magnificently. I would recommend this movie. It's a great one.

Don Juan DeMarco gives Johnny Depp another one of his quirky roles which have dotted the total sum of his career. But the chance to work with Marlon Brando is not something that any player should pass up, especially when you get a part that perfectly suits you.In the title role Depp plays a young man who believes he's at the least the reincarnation of the great lover Don Juan and he dresses the part complete with Lone Ranger mask like he just came from a ball at the Spanish court. Well if you have to have a fantasy providing you've got the strength and stamina that's as good a one to have as any I've heard. I think it beats thinking you're Theodore Roosevelt by a mile.Arsenic And Old Lace is another film that Don Juan DeMarco could easily be compared to. But another that takes a more light hearted look at mental illness is Harvey. If you remember Jimmy Stewart's whose fantasy was seeing a 6' rabbit also bonded with his treating psychiatrist in an unusual way.Stewart got Cecil Kellaway to want in on his Harvey fantasy. So too does Johnny Depp get his treating psychiatrist Marlon Brando to start thinking if maybe Depp's fantasy beats the reality he operates in. Certainly listening to Depp has got Brando looking at his wife Faye Dunaway in a whole new and romantic way.As for Depp's own work, Don Juan DeMarco can be closely compared to Benny And Joon for quirkiness and just unbridled fun. Depp has such a way with offbeat characters from these two films all the way to his Captain Jack Sparrow that I don't think another player around would even try for the parts he does.Don Juan DeMarco is a fun film with both Depp and Brando looking like they enjoy each other's company and working together. They must have because they were teamed again shortly.

Great Picture. Maybe not a masterpiece...(well, probably not), but nonetheless a completely joyful experience. The question whether Depps story is fact or fiction is really really neither here nor there. If it's not true, it bloody well should be !! lol. And if the story doesn't catch you, the performances should. Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp. Each one among the greatest actors of their generations. What a pleasure to Watch them working together. This is what acting is all about. They both shine as does Faye Dunaway (wow, she's still a beauty). And while the movie won't be considered among the highlights of their careers, I'll still highly recommend it to all movie lovers.