'Casanova' owes sod all to the historical Giacomo, and absolutely everything to the mistaken-identity historical rom-coms of the 1940s and 1950s. There's more than the odd touch too, here and there, of the Hope and Crosby 'Road' movies. Heath Ledger pours on the rakish charm as our titular hero, and Sienna Miller makes a feisty foil as the strong willed love of his life.
The plot, as one might expect, is more full of holes than a Swiss cheese, and is patent nonsense from start to finish. This is no bad thing. It's unpretentious escapist retro nonsense replete with snarling pantomime villains, dopey law-guardians, comic-grotesque yokels, swordfights, dances, fireworks and lots of very pretty costumes.
Ledger is well cast - reclaiming his heterosexual credentials after recent success in 'Brokeback Mountain' - and while there's no real chemistry with his leading lady, they are at least an attractive on-screen couple, and the script (save for a couple of incongruous modern puns "this is the last time I travel coach") sufficiently witty to hold the attention of the audiences.
Much of the success of the film is down to the supporting characters. More, perhaps, could have been made of Lena Olin and Tim McInnery, but Omid Djalili (a fine performer for once, thankfully, not designated a 'seedy Arab' role) and Oliver Platt (bluff, earnest and very funny) are superbly deadpan. Jeremy Irons fumes wonderfully as the baddie, and a host of British character actors (history, in Hollywood terms, being populated entirely by RADA graduates) fill in the gaps where the plot should be.
Mindless but good natured fun. Expected more from Lasse Hallstrom, though.
The plot, as one might expect, is more full of holes than a Swiss cheese, and is patent nonsense from start to finish. This is no bad thing. It's unpretentious escapist retro nonsense replete with snarling pantomime villains, dopey law-guardians, comic-grotesque yokels, swordfights, dances, fireworks and lots of very pretty costumes.
Ledger is well cast - reclaiming his heterosexual credentials after recent success in 'Brokeback Mountain' - and while there's no real chemistry with his leading lady, they are at least an attractive on-screen couple, and the script (save for a couple of incongruous modern puns "this is the last time I travel coach") sufficiently witty to hold the attention of the audiences.
Much of the success of the film is down to the supporting characters. More, perhaps, could have been made of Lena Olin and Tim McInnery, but Omid Djalili (a fine performer for once, thankfully, not designated a 'seedy Arab' role) and Oliver Platt (bluff, earnest and very funny) are superbly deadpan. Jeremy Irons fumes wonderfully as the baddie, and a host of British character actors (history, in Hollywood terms, being populated entirely by RADA graduates) fill in the gaps where the plot should be.
Mindless but good natured fun. Expected more from Lasse Hallstrom, though.