Final Rating: 1/5
The historical romance film Jeanne du Barry is clearly a passion project for the mononymous actor, co-writer, producer, and director Maïwenn, but ironically, passion is the thing most absent in the film.
The film depicts the last consort of King Louis XV (Johnny Depp). Madame Barry (Maïwenn) is an impossibly alluring courtesan who is also whip-smart, and cleverly uses her beauty and charm to rise from humble beginnings to the peak of French nobility. It’s not long before she catches the eye of Louis, who is smitten by her boldness and individuality among the French court. Jeanne, it turns out, is not like other girls.
Like any romance, Jeanne du Barry spends most of its time focused on scenes of its two leads, but this film, it turns out, is not like the other romances: Maïwenn and Depp have no chemistry whatsoever.
The couple’s first scene, a secret meeting in the King’s study by candlelight, feels as cold as the dingy apartment it takes place in. It doesn’t raise alarm bells at first, since Jeanne’s profession as a sex worker casts that initial interaction in a more transactional light. Problems arise once it becomes clear that the initial meeting is the most in-love the two will ever seem.
Even when physically in each other’s arms, Maïwenn and Depp regard each other like ghosts. Maïwenn sinks so completely into the role of Jeanne she nearly drowns, while Depp commands so little presence it’s easy to forget Louis is a character at all. And he’s the king!
It doesn’t help that the storytelling feels just as dry. Before she arrives at the king’s court, a narrator guides the audience through Jeanne’s life as if reciting a Wikipedia article. An occasional scene is played out for extra characterization, but usually adds so little that it might as well have been left out entirely.
During her time in Versailles, Jeanne is constantly the object of ridicule and disgust from other nobles. The scandal she brings to the court is treated by those around her as if it is the first bad thing to ever happen in France. But Maïwenn seems incurious about the thoughts and feelings of her supporting cast.
To the audience watching, the nobility is clearly overreacting to the presence of Jeanne. Is there more there? There might not be, but if not, it hardly feels worth spending even the meager attention given to it in the first place.
In its almost two hour runtime, Jeanne du Barry feels like it’s saying nothing at all, and doing a poor job of it.
Thank you to Route 504 for the screener.
