BEFORE: I've crossed some sort of threshold, because now for the first time (I think) more than 50% of the watchlist consists of films released in 2000 or later, and over 33% of the list is films made in this decade (2011 or later). So it seems my organizing skills need to just find ways to link together recent films, using older films as the connections. Tonight's film is one of those connections that gets me back to a 2013 chain - linking from "Some Kind of Hero", Margot Kidder was also in the first "Superman" film with Marlon Brando (last seen in "The Missouri Breaks").
AFTER: Now I'm glad I didn't save this one for the annual romance chain in February - there's not really enough romance in it to qualify. For that matter, there's not really enough comedy in it to count as a comedy, or enough drama to count as a drama. It's hard to know WHERE this film fits in, or what it's agenda is. By default, it sort of felt like all of the characters were just killing time until they could get to the end of the movie. There's just no THERE there.
I don't know why Hollywood filmmakers think that audiences are going to find films about delusional people entertaining. I'm sort of reminded of "The Fisher King" or perhaps "K-Pax". In the latter film Kevin Spacey played a man who was convinced he was an alien, acted like an alien might, but appeared more like a human mental patient. In both films the proposed therapy involves feeding the patients' delusions until enough trust can be gained to dispel them - but in the end, it seems like the delusions are bolstered, to the point where belief in them makes them real, or close enough. Do filmmakers think the audience will be lost if the entertaining part of the story is proven to be a delusion? Perhaps...
The one positive that arises here is that "Don Juan's" psychiatrist is enamored by his romantic story, and this allows him to re-connect with his wife. A similar effect is seen on other members of the hospital staff, but mostly this is about Brando's character re-connecting, and Depp's character doing a terrible Spanish accent. In the end, I just didn't care about either story, or which reality was real.
Also starring Johnny Depp (last heard in "Rango"), Faye Dunaway (last seen in "The Towering Inferno"), Rachel Ticotin (last seen in "Total Recall"), Talisa Soto, Bob Dishy, Stephen Singer (who I mistook for Mark-Linn Baker), Carmen Argenziano, Tiny Lister
RATING: 3 out of 10 days without medication
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