Johnny Depp inJeanne du Barry(2023).Photo: Stéphanie Branchu
Critics are weighing in onJohnny Depp’s new movie after it opened the 2023Cannes Film Festivalon Tuesday.
Then, “they fall madly in love. Against all propriety and etiquette, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where her arrival scandalizes the court.”
The first reviews arrived Tuesday afternoon.The Hollywood Reportercritic Jordan Mintzer said Depp’s casting “offers a few early thrills and then mostly yawns, with Depp dishing out what feels like a total of a dozen lines in respectable French, while otherwise remaining mute.”
“His performance isn’t bad, and neither is Maïwenn’s in the lead role,” wrote Mintzer. “But the two of them, like the movie, rarely get our pulse racing. With all the recent controversy surrounding Depp, not to mention Maïwenn herself, the result of their collaboration is a handsome period piece that feels both flat and shallow, and certainly far from anyscandale.”
Johnny Depp withJeanne du Barrycast.Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty
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ForIndieWire, Ben Croll added, “Though performing wholly in French and given ample screen time, the American star [Depp] leaves a strangely scant impression, offering a dim and muted turn that plays off his wider reputation in often fascinating ways.”
TheEvening Standard’s Jo-Ann Titmarshwrote in a reviewthat following Depp’s movies like 2015’sMortdecaiand thePirates of the Caribbeanfranchise, it is “great to see Depp in subtle and quiet mode — more Colonel Joll ofWaiting for the Barbariansand less Jack Sparrow — and in French to boot.”
A headline for theEvening Standardreview noted, however, that “Depp makes a good Louis XV but [Jeanne Du Barry] is a right royal disappointment.”
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty
“Depp is hardly the first Hollywood outcast to find work in Europe, but it would be a stretch to say this feels like the first spark of a glorious comeback,” wrote Collin.
Varietycritic Peter Debrugewroteof Depp’s performance, “For his part, Depp delivers his lines in well-turned French, wearing fine powder and a stiff white wig, and yet he seems strangely uncomfortable in the role — adequate but not especially engaged. Depp’s the kind of player who delivers practically every performance with a wink, so it’s odd that even when his Louis is actually supposed to be winking (at Jeanne), the sparkle isn’t there.”
AboutJeanne Du Barry, a source told PEOPLE in April that “filming was challenging, butJohnny is excited about the comeback.”
source: people.com
