LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN: CHAPLIN, MALCOLM X
As noted before, one of the recurring trends of 1992 was the biopic. Since this is the type of film normally done to angle for Oscar consideration, all three of the major biopics of the year - Danny DeVito's HOFFA (which will be discussed in a later column), Richard Attenborough's CHAPLIN, and Spike Lee's MALCOLM X - were released in the last two months of the year. A biopic can be faulted for seeming predictable, formulaic, being too soft or too hard on their subjects, or being too inclusive or not inclusive enough. Lee's film gets it just right, but Attenborough tries to cram too much in.
Certainly, there's no arguing with his subject. Charlie Chaplin certainly is one of the pioneers of film, and whatever you thought of the sentimentality that often appeared in his films, there's no denying his impact on comedy as well. The Little Tramp character he created may not have been the first famous movie character of the silent era (the "It Girl"), but it still remains in our consciousness all these years. He not only wrote, produced, and directed films long before that became normal, he also wrote the music. Along with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, he also opened a studio - United Artists - that's still running today. And while his film life should be the main focus, his off-screen life was controversial as well, from his several marriages, most to girls under 20, to his being labeled a subversive by the U.S. government. Still, you'd expect a film about Chaplin to focus more on what happened on-screen than what happened off.
Unfortunately, that's not what Attenborough's interested in. Framed by Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) telling his story to a biographer (Anthony Hopkins), the movie actually concentrates on the women of his life, including Hetty Kelly (Moira Kelly), Paulette Goddard (Diane Lane), his leading lady in MODERN TIMES and THE GREAT DICTATOR, Joan Barry (Nancy Travis), who filed a paternity suit against him that eventually proved to be his downfall, and Oona O'Neill (Kelly again), granddaughter of Eugene O'Neill, and his final wife. The film also tries to suggest that he was looking for women who were like his ailing mother (Geraldine Chaplin, playing her own grandmother). All of this might have still worked, but Attenborough and credited writers William Boyd, Bryan Forbes, and William Goldman (adapting the autobiography by Chaplin and a biography by British critic David Robinson) do little to give shape to this story. Not only that, but even though this film is 143 minutes, it still feels crammed in, since Attenborough tries to work it all in, and you feel like you're getting the Cliff Notes version.
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