Alice in Wonderland - DVD - 2/1/11

Johnny Depp eh?

Great actor.

Lot of great movies.

He was in the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" which isn't a bad way to announce your arrival in movies.  He played the lead in "Cry Baby" which was an early hint at his willingness to step outside the comfort zone of straight Hollywood fare.  "Edward Scissorhands" was his first role with director Tim Burton and it stands up as a cult classic.  In playing "Ed Wood" he gave a performance that really should have brought him an Oscar.  "Donnie Brasco" was an intelligent homage to the gangster movies of the seventies that saw him stand toe to toe with Al Pacino and match the master.  "Chocolat" wasn't my cup of hot chocolate but it gave him the chance to play the sort of dreamy leading man that he had always managed to avoid.  Even something as flawed as "From Hell" showed that Depp was willing to take risks and do things that other actors wouldn't.

Then came his decision to appear as Keith Richards in a film based on a fun fair ride...as well as two sequels and a third on the way.  To appear in one such film is unfortunate but to appear in four stinks of a man who has lost his quality compass.  Throw in "Sweeney Todd", "Public Enemies", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Finding Neverland" and one can only conclude that this is an actor who has, quite simply, given up.

Proof that Depps career is in terminal decline arrived, for me, with a viewing of last years "Alice in Wonderland".  A re-imagining of the classic story that took the joy, the beauty, the oddness of it and chose instead to use the pages as toilet paper and make, instead, a steaming turd of a film that has all the charm of N-Dubz.  I don't often take such a negative approach to films as I am well aware that the people who make them are more talented and dedicated than I am but on this occasion it isn't possible to say anything even remotely positive.  Depp, in particular, is just hideous...almost too awful.  It is always difficult when people that you admire, respect or love do something to disappoint you and in this instance Depp goes beyond just disappointing and plumbs new depths of awfulness.

You may have missed "Alice in Wonderland" and if you did I cannot tell you how envious I am of you. I have seen it and nothing will ever change that.  I have to live with the knowledge that any point in any day I may well remember some image, line or performance and that my day will be ruined.  Everyone involved in this should hang their heads in shame and vow never, ever to make another film.  Sadly every single one of them will.