I haven’t seen the movie or read the books they’re based on. But I’ve seen the ad campaign for the upcoming movie Mortdecai. And every time I see one, I feel like I’m seeing an ad for a reboot of the Pink Panther series. From the ads, it looks like Mortdecai is just an Inspector Clouseau expy.
Anyone else feeling this? If so, is the movie itself going to be like this or is it just the ad campaign selling the movie this way? Can people who’ve read the books tell me if they’re like this?
Don’t get me wrong. I loved the Pink Panther movies and would have no problem watching a well-made imitation of them.
I haven’t read/am not familiar with the books either, but I can say that I saw the trailer in a huge packed Imax theater and I don’t think I heard as much as a chuckle at the trailer. I don’t think I’d buy stock in this one.
I’ve seen the ads and laughed, and I laughed at the Peter Sellers’ version of *Pink Panther *(of course, I was much younger.) I did not laugh at all at the Steve Martin reboot. If it is a reboot of the Panther series, then, in my mind, it’s more in keeping with the original. I’m looking forward to it.
I don’t remember if it was the first one or the second one (yes, I watched both, Emily Mortimer has a way of getting me to do things I wouldn’t otherwise do) but in one of the movies Clive Owen has a single scene in which he is so wonderfully hilarious that it made the whole movie worth it and I have worshipped him ever since.
I only said I’d like to see a well-made imitation. That eliminates any Pink Panther movies with Steve Martin or Roberto Benigni or, og help us, Ted Wass.
Speaking as someone who started reading the books last year and only then realised that there was a film in the works, um, no they’re not.
If absolutely forced to summarise Bonfiglioli’s style - and only if you have to point that at me - then I might - but anybody reading this sort of story would already know this - suggest PG Wodehouse crossed with George MacDonald Fraser.
In the novels, the central character and narrator is a middle-aged, tubby, snobbish Mayfair art dealer who retains a hulking thug by the name of Jock - because that’s what all Mayfair art dealers do - who can flawlessly do everything from any form of illegality to rustling up a perfect dinner or hangover cure, but who is most certainly not regarded by Mortdecai as his butler/valet/manservant. He’s his thug.
The plots are ludicrous, but from fairly early on he implausibly acquires an over-sexed sex-bomb crass and buxom American billionaire as a wife.
At its most obvious, none of Depp, Bettany and Paltrow seem obvious casting for any of those three parts. In any permutation.
Granted, if he can do a Scots accent, then I could see Ray Winstone pulling off Jock Strapp in some parallel universe.
No, the whole thing’s just a terrible idea for a film, never mind a putative franchise. Bonfiglioli strikes me as one of those authors, like Wodehouse or Fraser, whose comic style is a compact between the writer and the reader. Adaptations just usually immediately have to junk what made them genius in the first place.
Also, it’s really only the first book (and the title of the second) that’s worth reading. The first book is genius. The others, more of the same but meh.
From the trailers, the film appears to miss the point completely, miss the gay subtext entirely, and mistake the humour thoroughly. They more or less seem to have understood the plot.
Johnny Depp seems to be channelling Terry-Thomas, from the huge gap in the teeth to the dimbulb English snobbery. That alone makes it promising to me (TT was a perfect buffoon) but the trailer was a mixed bag for me–sometimes, comedies are more about tone that jokey joke so ads don’t always do them justice, but it’s been a while since Depp did a comedy that was actually funny. I’ll wait to see what the critics have to say.
I don’t know who the ‘Mordecai’ character is either, but my first thought was,* “God, they so should have had Depp play Clouseau in the reboot!”* He’s got the acting & comedy chops to play it like Sellers did. Incredibly subtle, dry whit mixed with broad slapstick. Martin can only do one or the other, not both.
From your mouth to the reviewer’s ear: “Jolly good? No, neither. Johnny Depp’s ‘Mortdecai’ is like ‘Austin Powers,’ but without the jokes … Depp is unbearable … Paltrow is nearly lifeless … no one else makes much of an impression.”