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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Charming Romantic Comedy With Interesting Mix of Actors, Jul 12 2002
Here's a light, charming little romantic comedy-fantasy from Frances Ford Coppola. A young man (played by Johnny Depp), who says his name is Don Juan Demarco is suffering from delusions that he is Don Juan, the greatest lover in history. With this confident belief in his identity, his looks and his costumes, he successfully seduces every woman he applies his charms to. He eventually gets committed to a mental hospital as a result of a suicide attempt (because his honor was disgraced). Marlon Brando plays the psychiatrist assigned to his case. He is the best clinician the hospital has ever had. Don Juan thinks Marlon Brando is Don Octavio de Flores, a Spanish nobleman from the same era as the original Don Juan. Marlon Brando plays a very open, warm-fuzzy character, very different from any other role I've seen him in. He is 10 days from retirement. This will be his last patient. Marlon is intrigued and charmed by the Don Juan's fantasy world and wants to explore it. Marlon's boss, the head of the hospital wants Don Juan put on medication right away. Marlon refuses because he's enjoying the Don Juan's fantasies too much. In their sessions Don Juan talks about his life, all of which is an elaborate fantasy, but all the while he is preaching the romance of seduction, honor and the beauty of women to Marlon. Don Juan has a Don Quixote like effect on most every one around him. The female nurses fall all over him. Best of all, Marlon Brando adopts Don Juan's philosophy and starts, "Don Juaning," his wife, played by Faye Dunaway. This is all quite a surprise to her. Their long-cold relationship comes alive. He takes her to romantic dinners, buys her diamond earrings, buys flowers, and on and on. He tells his wife of 32 years that he wants to her to know her! He says he wants to know what she was thinking and feeling all those years he was thinking about himself. She laughs. She says she thought he'd never ask. Marlon Brando starts to consider that Don Juan Demarco is the real Don Juan. It is hinted that if Don Juan is put on medication, he will end up staying in the hospital for the rest of his life. Marlon Brando confidently feels he will have him out in 10 days. Marlon only gives him his medicine right before he has to go before the judge who will decide his fate. Brought back to reality before the judge, by the drug he comes across as close enough to normal, and the judge releases him, to Marlon's pleasure and the militant disapproval of the head of the hospital. As Don Juan is being released, Marlo Brando announces to himself, in his mind, "I am Don Octavio de Flores the world's greatest psychiatrist! I have cured 1,000 patients."
All three fly to the Greek island of Eros for a vacation. In his mind, to the viewer, he announces, "Yes, Don Juan was incurable. He was infected with incurable Romanticism and, and it is very contagious." Marlon and Faye dance to Mariachi music on the beach. This is the most unlikely bunch of producers, actors and actresses to make a movie like this.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
It sings? (sigh), Jul 19 2004
There are 2 movies, other than The Godfather, Streetcar Named Desire and The Contender, for which I want to remember Marlon Brando: A Bedtime Story and Don Juan de Marco. How many comedies has he made? In Don Juan de Marco, I enjoyed watching him be part of an ensemble cast, which has never really been his modus operandi on other sets. As much as he derided acting as a profession, his performance in this movie seemed to argue that he still liked doing it.
It is a very funny, sexy flight of notions about fantasy and reality, much like Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart did decades ago. Johnny Depp, Brando, Faye Dunaway and company, to paraphrase a line from the movie, really have a way of putting the story in touch with what is real. With Mexican ballads and exotic settings, Don Juan is like a male Sheherazad, buying time and confounding the truth. As a lovesick worshipper of romance, he asks why we even bother to call it love any more in a modern world rushing past emotion for the carrots at the end of the stick in our lives.
Just an aside, in the commentary for The Usual Suspects, the director mentioned that, after the filming of a street scene, Gabriel Bryne and company heard that Don Juan de Marco was filming at a location near there. The whole set was reputed to be filled with nude women bathing. They all rushed over to check it out. I tell this story to my guy friends who are quick to dismiss it on the grounds that it is a chick flick. It got the Usual Suspects anecdote of approval. They might argue that all the beautiful nude and/or scantily clad women would have made them watch, but they are acting like Rocco, the male nurse in the hospital Ð I mean at Don Octavio de FloresÕ villa, and you know what happened to Rocco Ð if not watch this movie.
The people in the audience that saw it with me back in 1995 enjoyed it enough to not just applaud afterward but to come out chatting and politely flirting while filing out of the theater. The ushers standing by the exit mentioned that Don Juan de Marco Òthawed everybody outÓ in a way they had not seen by other movies. Watching it on DVD with friends can be just as fun. Muy romantica! (Dancing to one of the songs in the sound track Me Siento Loco, Poco a Poco Ð translation: I Feel Crazy, Little by Little.)
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1.0 out of 5 stars
A stellar cast in a bad movie, Jul 12 2004
With the recent death of legendary Marlon Brando, I've been watching his films lately as my own way of paying respects. Brando's talent was near genius that almost none can surpass. Oh sure, there are a handful of actors in certain roles who are as good or better as he was. However, the overall quality of acting in each of Brando's films, taken collectively, is unsurpassed. Johnny Depp is one of, if perhaps the only, actor of this generation who could maybe eclipse Brando. That they were friends solidifies this premise.That said, I was so excited to see Brando, Depp, Dunaway, and Selena (albeit in a very small singing part) together in one film. But I must say, after watching it, I was disappointed. It wasn't Depp's accent (he did convincingly well) but the plot - if you want to call it - that was a big let-down. Brando is sweet and charming; Dunaway is beautiful as ever; and, of course, Depp is ultra suave and sexy as Don Juan. The movie starts off kinda cute, you wonder where it's going to go, and then - boom! The let-down. What was the point of this movie? I just didn't get it. Was it lust or love? Even if it was either or, I just came away thinking, "Who cares?" If it weren't for the phenomenal actors, this film wouldn't have made a pile of beans. What a flop and a disappointment. Well, there is just one more thing I'll admit that is good about this flick: the theme song. Bryan Adams' "Have you ever really loved a woman" is a most beautiful love song and it will remain my favorite. It ties in well with the movie with its Latin guitar strings. The music and the actors themselves make for this movie, but the storyline is disappointing and disbelievable.
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