Starring Robert Downey, Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Kevin Kline, Anthony Hopkins, Milla Jovovich, Dan Aykroyd
Director: Richard Attenborough
Studio: Studio Canal/Lionsgate
Video: 1.78:1 widescreen color
Audio: English DD 5.1, DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Extras: Chaplin home movie “All At Sea, ” “Strolling into the Sunset,” “Chaplin the Hero,” “The Most Famous Man in the World,” Theatrical trailer
Length: 135 minutes
Rating: *****
Robert Downey Jr. earned an Oscar for his excellent capture of Chaplin’s personality and slapstick comedy in the bio of actor-director. It begins with Chaplin’s struggling upbringing in London, his early vaudeville work, his first viewing of and fascination with slapstick silent movies, his going to Hollywood and starting out at Mack Sennett Studios. The huge success of his movies once he convinced the powers that be to allow him to direct and star in them is portrayed, along with his troubled marriages and affinity for very young partners. Downey watched many of Chaplin’s films and got down the gestures, body language, and general demeanor to an astonishing degree.
Chaplin’s social concerns are revealed, as he allowed the struggles of the depression to launch his Modern Times and later (1938) the threat of Hitler to prompt his The Great Dictator. His outspokenness about the wrongs of society earned him a huge file in J. Edgar Hoover’s offices, and he was barred from returning to the U.S. after he left on a visit back to London. A backward law in California disallowing blood tests as evidence (though they proved him innocent) got him involved in an embarrassing paternity suit. He was exiled in Switzerland but in 1972 invited back to Hollywood for the Oscar ceremonies.
The one element of the film that doesn’t quite work (and is admitted by Attenborough in the extras) was creating a fictitious character of Chaplin’s biographer, played by Anthony Hopkins. It’s one of the few Hopkins roles that just doesn’t work very well. Kevin Kline is a standout as Chaplin’s pal Doug Fairbanks and Geraldine Chaplin is good playing her own befuddled grandmother. This transfer is one of the best standard DVDs I’ve viewed lately; it looks almost as good as a Blu-ray. The surround tracks are well-used as well, and the various featurettes are all worth watching even though they tend to repeat many times some of the classic Chaplin clips.
– John Sunier
