The Man in the Iron Mask . Newcity Chicago . 03-16-98

The Man in the Iron Mask

DIRECTED BY: Randall Wallace

REVIEWED: 03-16-98

Randall Wallace made a name for himself in the period epic game with his script for "Braveheart," and its worldwide success led to his writing-directing assignment for "Man in the Iron Mask." His script might not be half-bad, but it's hard to tell from the finished film. Dumas' story takes its lumps in a few vulgar and unfunny comic scenes, but it's mostly the clash of acting and nonacting styles that takes its toll. While as King Louis, the long-tressed Leonardo DiCaprio is more delicately girlish than ever, he's surrounded by four variously loyal men of various cartoon strength: Aramis, a drab, devout Jeremy Irons; stomach-ache-faced D'Artagnan Gabriel Byrne; Porthos as a thickly-accented buffoon in the sometimes-nude form of Gerard Depardieu; and John Malkovich as Athos, in what surely must be the most uncomfortable performance in years. (There are master shots that include several people in which Malkovich's eyes wander and he stares sourly off-camera.) The preview I saw was packed with a recruited audience of prepube Leophiles, and it bid well for both United Artists and theater owners--there were low girl-moans each time he came on screen, but any time it became apparent that the old farts were going to command a few minutes of screen time, they would bolt as one for the snack bar--five, six, seven times within the pic. In the multiplex megacorp multiverse, everybody makes money! For about seventy-two hours, maybe. If they're lucky. With Anne Parillaud, Judith Godreche.

--Ray Pride

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The Man in the Iron Mask
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The Man in the Iron Mask

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