Johnny Depp's coruscating, rigorously uningratiating performance as debauched, self-destructive 17th-century aristocrat John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, is the glue that doesn't quite hold together first-time director Laurence Dunmore's adaptation of Stephen Jeffreys' 1994 play. A celebrated wit, poet and drunken carouser, Wilmot systematically squandered his talents, alienated his admirers and friends, besmirched his family's reputation, tempted fate with insane recklessness — most famously fulfilling King Charles II's commission for a play celebrating his reign with a scandalously pornographic spectacle — and died a protracted, humiliating and disfigur...
Released:
2004
Rated:
R
Length:
130 mins