Mortdecai review: A handsomely dressed curio, much like Mortdecai himself
MORTDECAI is a rather over-ripe caper based on cult novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli, featuring high-living and cash-strapped rogue Charlie Mortdecai, a sometime art dealer.
Mortdecai Official Trailer
Johnny Depp seized on the anti-hero as a vehicle for his comic talents and gifts of impersonation, à la Captain Jack Sparrow.
So here he is channelling the gap-toothed Terry-Thomas as the bounderish, cravat-wearing Mortdecai with a dash of The Fast Show’s sozzled barrister Rowley Birkin QC (played by Paul Whitehouse who cameos here as a dodgy Italian mechanic).
Depp’s clearly having fun but will the audience? That depends. The characters appear to have strayed in from a TV sketch show, including a plummy MI5 officer played by Ewan McGregor and Mortdecai’s posh totty wife (Gwyneth Paltrow).
The plot has zip but is inconsequential: a broke Mortdecai assists the government in locating a stolen Goya which might hold the clue to missing Nazi millions.
There are some droll moments but consistent laughs are elusive. The result is a handsomely dressed curio, much like Mortdecai himself.
