I don't know why editing is not allowed in the revew section, as it is in all the other groups. If I could I would delete my first draft review. This, I think, is a much improved version, that I posted on the BBC Collective Site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A7179942?s_fromedit=1

Restoration England is dark and muddy, and not just underfoot, in this chaotic, entertaining account of the declining years of John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester, popular poet and dedicated rake. Johnny Depp plays the eponymous author, recently restored to favour with Charles 11, a heavy-jowled John Malkovitch doing his narrow-eyed best, but bewitched, as we all are, by the handsomely insouciant Depp, bent on drinking and fornicating himself to death. Bored as much by restraints on his ribald literary output as by his country acres and dull wife, it is only in the theatre that he feels alive, for in 1660's England it is only on the stage that ‘a dropped handkerchief can return to smother a man’. He falls in love with Lizzie Barry, actress, Samantha Morton in a surprisingly dignified performance, given that she and her fellow-artistes see as much action backstage as on it. The theatre scenes are strong on atmosphere, whether in tantalising glimpses of erotic encounters in the wings or out front with the kind of audience who resort to throwing oranges when less than enchanted with a performance. This shorthand reminder of the king’s mistress, Nell Gwynne, helps set the context. Wilmot tutors Lizzie in how to please him as well as the crowd, but she, in seventeenth century career woman mode, craves only her audience and speed up the self-destruct trajectory of the distempered rake. The fine ensemble playing, from Depp’s manservant, whose name, Allcock, amuses his master, to the pipe-smoking mistress of the wardrobe, never distract from Depp. His bizarre apotheosis, a speech in the House of Lords, is a tour-de-force, as, his disease-raddled face covered in white make-up and wearing a silver false nose, he staggers about with walking sticks on the brink of collapse and wins the day for the succession of the monarchy. Michael Nyman’s music adds depth to the rotten-cored frowsiness of the mise-en-scene, whilst screenplay and dialogue draw on the sexual frankness of Restoration Comedy;hence it's not for the squeamish. This rollicking portrait of an age and milieu will please audiences on both sides of the Atlantic



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I won a Babyshambles CD with it! I'll soon be well up on the music scene if this keeps up. Thanks, Zettel for reminding me about it.