The Man in the Iron Mask
Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich; Directed by Randall Wallace
France is in trouble. War is ravaging the economy, the people are starving, and their king is greedy, uncaring, lecherous, and corrupt. Fortunately, there is a plan to replace the king, which will hopefully resolve most if not all of the problems that are plaguing the country. Alexandre Dumas’s Three Musketeers - Aramis, Porthos, and Athos - have reunited once again to fight corruption for freedom. Their plan involves infiltrating a prison to free a man who has been condemned to spend the rest of his life in an iron mask, a man who has no knowledge of who he is or why he has been imprisoned. This is the man they hope to make their new king. But there is a huge complication. D’Artagnan, the legendary fourth musketeer, has refused to join his old comrades in the scheme because of his loyalty to the present king. He must now be counted as an enemy, but his reasons for loyalty go deeper than any of them could imagine, and if the many mysteries are unlocked too late, it will mean certain death for all of them.
With a proper sprinkling of romance, mystery, and humor, The Man in the Iron Mask fits very snugly smack in the middle of the action/adventure category. With solid performances from all of the leads, the film manages to be highly entertaining without stooping to shoddy sight gags or predictable twists. The novel gets a decent adaptation, and the direction of the film is quickly steered from a drama-light costume piece to a dark, terrifying nail-biter. This could have very well gone wrong had the role of the king not been expertly cast. As it is, faith need never be lost in Leonardo DiCaprio, whose intense, passionate, and dedicated performances have yet to leave us unimpressed. However, the film does suffer from an unfortunate problem to do with three of the minor characters in the story, - the Queen, the young son of one of the musketeers, and his fiancé. A dramatic plot between the latter two involves the young Christine catching the eye of the king, who then sends her betrothed to the front lines of war David/Bathsheba style. The storyline with the Queen involves a suppressed romance between herself and D’Artagnan. All three of these performances were very disappointing and acted as virtual black holes, nearly sucking the life and intrigue right out of the story.
Another annoying inconsistency was accents. Two of the musketeers were British, one was American, and only the fourth was actually French. DiCaprio is also left to speak in his American dialect. It takes a good half of the movie to get used to this. Not a perfect film, but certainly not a dismal failure. It offers a satisfying story, and the leads save the drama from cheesiness and camp. Anyone who enjoys stories in the vein of The Count of Monte Cristo, or The Scarlet Pimpernel would no doubt enjoy this film.
Grading:
Story = A-
Originality = A-
DVD Features = N/A
Acting = B+
Enjoyability = B+
Visuals = B-
Overall = B
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