Chaplin (1992)

Directed by: Richard Attenborough
Starring: Robert Downey Jr.

**1/2

Richard Attenborough is perhaps most recognizable from his acting appearances in Jurassic Park and the Great Escape, among others. His directing resumes, however, while not as extensive, is certainly impressive with both Gandhi and Chaplin. Gandhi was a great movie about a great person who lived a very storied life. On the flipside, Charlie Chaplin was a unique, interesting and progressive character of his time but, according to Attenborough's portrayal of him, not enough really happened to make a movie about. A famous character does not necessarily make an interesting one.

Like all biopics, Chaplin was an opportunity for the selected actor to showcase his impersonation abilities. Robert Downey Jr. is a fine actor and he was nothing short of spectacular in his impersonation of Charles Chaplin however when all is said and done, it was nothing more than an impersonation. Jamie Foxx portrayed a blind man in Ray, Ben Kingsley completely transformed himself into an Indian man in Gandhi. Robery Downey Jr. was simply a man who was a relatively normal man and on a number of occasions hurt himself for the sake of comedy. Well, while those scenes were entertaining and impressive, I would have been just as satisfied watching Modern Times or City Lights.

Chaplin's life wasn't completely without drama or excitement. His many love affairs and marriages certainly didn't make things easy for him. His childhood and his relationships with his mother and brother were a struggle and his response to his fame was well portrayed. The film surrounds him at an old age, writing an autobiography with the aid of George Hayden (Anthony Hopkins). It appears that he has written said book with very little detail and information and Hayden is looking for those additional details and little by little he gets them but it seemed that whenever there should have been something more significant in Chaplin's life but wasn't, they simply escaped it by having Chaplin say, "I don't want to talk about that". Just because Downey delivers the line well, doesn't mean its okay to cop out.

The most intriguing part of the story was Chaplin's involvement in the congressional hearings regarding communism and his subsequent ban from the United States. Not only was this an unknown aspect of his life for me, it was also the most dramatic and conflict driven aspect of the entire film. I once saw a movie I remember very little about called Guilty by Suspiscion and it was about Hollywood figures' involvement in those hearings. It was a relatively simple film but the real life drama of it made it extremely interesting. Chaplin only designated about 30 of its 150 minutes to this aspect of Chaplin's life. Granted it was only a single part of his life but it was by far the most interesting and most worthy of a feature film recreation of his life.

At times I felt like I was being too hard on this film and using too many comparisons to other biopics which is unfair, however, it is frustrating that so many of this genre's films are essentially the same story. Struggle-filled childhood, tough relationships with family and with women/men, addictions to drugs/alcohol/fame (whichever's one's poison) so on and so on. Chaplin isn't the worst biopic, I've seen but its far from the best. At the same time, its just about the same as any and every biopic I've seen.