The Libertine (18, 114mins) Stars: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Paul Ritter, Tom Hollander Directed by Laurence Dunmore
ONCE I really did have a taxi driver ask me if I knew who he had had in the back of his cab. The answer was Johnny Depp.
The conversation took place in the Isle of Man where Depp had been filming The Libertine and the fact that our chat took place early last year suggests just how long it takes some movies to reach your local multiplex.
There had been some problems with the film - it was re-edited following a Toronto work-in-progress screening last year - and some of the flow is lost as a result.
And it is very much Depp's film playing the notorious real-life 17th Century rake the Earl of Rochester who became a favourite of Charles II.
Depp plays it with the swagger he perfected in Pirates of the Caribbean, although with an added twist - Rochester's bawdy life soon told on his looks and Depp gradually turns pretty ugly by the end.
Based on Stephen Jeffreys's 1994 play with Jeffreys also providing the film script, it opens with the Earl (also known as John Wilmot) addressing the audience directly and warning, "You will not like me".
Indeed it is difficult to like a chap who seems to live for his own self-indulgence, cheating on his wife, drinking heavily and generally behaving like a bounder. Only Depp's twinkle in his eye keeps us on board for him.
He is recalled to London by Charles II who is missing his old friend. The king is played by John Malkovich who once played Wilmot on stage.
Malkovich in a false nose seems to be having fun. Once in London, he meets up with playwright Sir George Etherege (an excellent Tom Hollander) and his Falstaff-style mate Charles Sackville (Johnny Vegas in typical Vegas mode).
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