This Weekend’s Film Festival – Five from Johnny Depp

With PUBLIC ENEMIES now on DVD and Blu-ray, This Weekend's Film Festival honors the eclectic work of Johnny Depp. The versatile actor has played a notorious gangster and a notoriously bad filmmaker. He has played a drunken pirate and a man who like to play pirate. He launched his career as an oddball with magic fingers. Enjoy the work of one of the best actors working today.

PUBLIC ENEMIES is a cops and robbers tale that pits Depp's charismatic John Dillinger against Christian Bale's by-the-book Melvin Purvis. As I said in my original review, "Depp is cool and precise as Dillinger. He’s a man oozing with confidence. The risk is what makes it fun." Like so many great men, his weakness is women. Depp shows the killer's soft side when he's with his #1 girl Billie Frechette, played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard. Dillinger relished in outsmarting and flaunting his ways to the police. He treated the common man kindly because that allowed him to walk among them. Between daring escapes, shootouts and other outright "death wish" behavior, Dillinger lives for the thrill of the moment. In a crucial scene, Dillinger meets Purvis for the first time. Depp is at the top of his game as he explains to the cop about the bloody business they're in. He tells the lawman that if he can't stomach it he should find another occupation. This crime drama shows how each side must continue to adapt to stay ahead of the other. In the end, Dillinger loses because his way becomes obsolete and it forces him to bend the principles that have kept him safe for so long.

FINDING NEVERLAND earned Depp his second Oscar nomination. In it he plays J.M. Barrie the creator of Peter Pan. In one of the actor's most subtle performances, Depp makes Barrie a real life Peter Pan of the early 20th century. The writer is in a cold marriage with Mary (Radha Mitchell), a woman far too interested in mingling with the influential for the likes of her husband. One day in the park, Barrie meets widow Sylvia Davies, played wonderfully by Kate Winslet, and her four boys. He strikes up a relationship with the family and is inspired by the innocence of the children. He is most taken by Peter (Freddie Highmore), a smart young boy who has grown up too fast since the death of his father. Barrie, an innocent himself, can't see why the outside world looks down on him for spending so much time with another women and her boys. As I said in my original review, "Depp captures a sense of childlike innocence while still paying attention to the decorum of the age in which Barrie lived. He’s not a clown." This tale of an inventive writer showcases Depp's range and ability for tenderness and emotional honesty.

While Barrie liked to play pretend pirate, Depp received his first Oscar nomination for playing the now iconic pirate, Capt. Jack Sparrow, in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL. Inspired by the constantly-inebriated persona of Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards, Depp fashioned an outlandish character who is as recognizable around the world today as characters like Spider-Man and Batman are. To quote my original review, "He’s a pirate like you’d think a pirate should be and more. The characterization is totally original. He balances between drag queen, drunk and crazy." The story sets Capt. Jack out on a mission to regain his beloved ship the Black Pearl from his cursed rival Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). Wrapped up in this fantastic tale is young blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and the Governor’s daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightly) who hold the key to freeing Barbossa from his plight. The plot twists and turns as the young couple learns that putting your faith in a pirate like Jack Sparrow is a risky business. Driven by Depp's performance, this is one of the most entertaining genre films to come out of the new millennium.

One cannot talk about Johnny Depp without addressing his most fruitful collaborations with Tim Burton. As to date, they have worked together seven times, including the upcoming ALICE IN WONDERLAND. However, their first, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, is still one of the their most memorable. Again Depp creates an iconic character in the shy and harmless Frankenstein-like character. Left with scissors as hands following the death of his creator, Edward stays hidden in his dark castle until the bright and bubbly Avon saleswoman Peg (Dianne Wiest) brings him to a much scarier place — suburbia. There in the rows of identical pastel colored homes he becomes a quick curiosity and used by the citizens for their own selfish motives. Depp makes Edward a kind innocent whose strangeness is due to his inexperience with the outside world. He falls in love with Peg's beautiful daughter Kim (Winona Ryder), who he will do anything for. A bittersweet "Beauty and the Beast" romance. As I said in my original review, "[Depp] creates an original character, filled with oddness, humor and heart. But he never stretches for any of it. His portrayal of the misunderstood hero embodies the mix of the macabre, quirky and sentimental that would become the signature tone of Tim Burton’s work."

To close this week's fest, we look at Tim Burton's masterpiece ED WOOD. In a performance Depp should have been Oscar nominated for, he plays Edward D. Wood Jr., the most notoriously bad independent horror/sci-fi director of the 1950s/60s. "First and foremost, Johnny Depp plays Wood to perfection — in a style that’s campy, but never too over the top," to quote my original review. Wood made films on the fly and never let quality get in the way of getting a production finished. Toward the end of his life, horror star Bela Lugosi, Martin Landau in an Oscar-winning performance, became Wood's muse, mentor and friend. The director of such bad classics as GLEN OR GLENDA and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE was a cross dresser and had a fetish for angora sweaters. He worked with a cast of misfits and oddballs who alienated him from his girlfriend Dolores Fuller (Sarah Jessica Parker). What he lacked in talent, he made up for it with enthusiasm and determination ten times over. This quirky comedy succeeds on the shoulders of Depp's focused and unique performance. Even in tender and serious moments, he doesn't lose the idiosyncrasies of the character. In the end, the black & white original both skewers and upholds the traditions of the inspirational follow your dreams story. Depp's Wood doesn't let skill get in the way of following his dreams.

To watch these Johnny Depp films simply head to the videostore, update the Netflix queue, visit HelloMovies.com for streaming sites, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings, or help support the site by purchasing the films on DVD or Blu-ray at the links below.