Don Juan DeMarco (1994)

(On Cable TV, July 2022) Marlon Brando is one of those actors that, absent historical context, is almost entirely baffling to modern audiences. Much of his admirable mystique is based on his first few years, his good looks and his raw acting technique. On the Waterfront; A Streetcar Named Desire; no problem. But then his legacy became far more complicated—famously eccentric to the point of self-destructiveness, he often harmed movies through idiosyncratic choices (not always on-screen—listen to Francis Ford Coppola to learn how he rescued Apocalypse Now from Brando) or was reigned into delivering good performances through a strong director (again, Coppola, and the first two The Godfather films). The rest of his career? It feels like a miracle he even starred in films. Last Tango in Paris alone is unwatchable largely because of the creepy Brando factor. I’m skipping over a lot (and frankly, I don’t care, because I don’t like Brando) but the point is: Don Juan DeMarco is one weird movie somehow starring Brando. It may not be quite as weird as his self-parody in The Freshman, or maybe it is, considering that his role in Don Juan DeMarco isn’t an homage to himself. Anyway: it’s a bizarre role because it’s such a slight film. Brando plays a psychiatrist who gets interested in the delusions of a young man (Johnny Depp, and that’s another layer of weird) who claims to be the world’s greatest lover. The details make no sense, but we viewers have seen enough of those movies to know what’s going to happen next—the young man will be a traumatic wreck coping with terrible events through a legend that will be based on a few truths. It’s not as if the film has any big mysteries to unlock, or even mild surprises—this is strictly familiar material. Nor are Brando and Depp the only noteworthy casting choice, with Faye Dunaway popping up as the psychologist’s wife, and Selena with a short sequence that hinted at much potential she had before dying so tragically young. But perhaps the weirdest thing about Don Juan DeMarco is that it works—Brando does well in a relatively unchallenging story. He’s rather likable, and brings this likability to the rest of the film. Depp also does well in a comparatively more difficult role, and from a contemporary perspective it’s worth noting how young he feels here. (Most actors stick to a persona that evolves through time, but fewer take on as radically different roles through their careers as Depp continues to do.)  It ends on an entirely predictable but rather pleasant note—and even if Don Juan DeMarco remains a minor film, it features Brando being unusually approachable. In a career characterized by weirdness, Brando’s most bizarre turn may be playing the ordinary.