It's a very different character Heath Ledger plays in Casanova than the one he plays in Brokeback Mountain.
In Brokeback he's a ranch hand who discovers his passionate homosexual side. In Casanova he's the legendary lover of the mid 18th century who claims to have seduced more than 10,000 women in his lifetime.
Nevertheless, Ledger plays both characters pretty much the same: quiet and mumbling, which is great for the cowpoke; not so good for Casanova. He needs more dash and derring-do in director Lasse Hallstrom's sumptuously produced film, which recreates the masked balls and romance along the canals of 1753 Venice.
Nevertheless, Casanova, which deals in deceptions, lies and mistaken identities, gets off to a rollicking start as we're introduced to Casanova, a lover who seems to always be just one step ahead of some jealous husband or the carbinieri. In one of his first escapades, he's fleeing these police, who have tracked him to the room of a young nun in a convent. Across the rooftops of Venice he goes in a flash.
No question that Casanova would have been front-page news every week in the supermarket tabloids, if they'd had supermarket tabloids in 1753 Venice, although the locals manage to get their weekly dose of titillation from the pamphlets produced by a mysterious writer named Bernardo Guardi whose goal is to promote sexual freedom.
But after that solid start, the plot of Casanova gets a bit wobbly. The doge of Venice, the chief magistrate who dresses in a series of ridiculous costumes and who always tries to look on the sunny side, orders Casanova to either get married quick or leave Venice for everyone's own good.
Soon there's an engagement to a very pretty young woman. But she is secretly beloved by a young man who is the brother of the beautiful and tempestuous Francesca (Sienna Miller). And Francesca is the woman Casanova really is smitten with. The young man gets jealous of Casanova, there's a duel and lots of running around as the plot gets more and more complicated and more and more characters are introduced.
It doesn't help Casanova's cause that he has fallen for Francesca, who despises everything he stands for, even though they haven't met. She is a feminist in a time when scholars argued whether women should be educated in the home . . . or at all. The fact that Francesca's mother (Lena Olin) has promised her daughter's hand in marriage to a wealthy merchant whom Francesca has never laid eyes on sends shivers up her spine. The first time we see her, she has disguised herself as a man in order to lecture the anti-feminist scholars at a university . . . and does she give them a piece of her mind. Fiery and assured, Francesca can argue her point forcefully or even do swordplay like a man. She's the opposite of Casanova, a libertine who is ruled by his hormones and proud of it.
All this should have been festive and bright. But it's too complex and studied. Fortunately, though, there are some moments in the early moments of Casanova that show the promise of wackier things to come. But mostly you may find yourself trying to figure out the ins and outs of the plot.
Happily, things get much better with the arrival of Jeremy Irons and Oliver Platt. Irons, his skull-like face in a perpetual grimace, is the self-righteous Bishop Pucci, a representative of the Pope who has been sent to Venice to try to put a halt to the sexual hijinks going on there. Dour, severe and determined to nip heresy in the bud, Irons's Bishop Pucci is a comic opera villain that the actor plays to the hilt.
Equally strong is Platt in the wildly comical role of Paprizzio, the lard salesman who has been sight-unseen betrothed to Francesca. Paprizzio looks like a tub of lard himself. Casanova uses one of his many aliases to fool him into thinking that the great romancer is really Bernardo Guardi, the heretic writer. Paprizzio is dazzled by this deceit. He eagerly places himself in Casanova/Guardi's hands, subjecting himself to Casanova's schemes. These include putting Paprizzio through a makeshift "spa" treatment which includes slathering him in some foul green concoction while being stretched on a rack in hopes of shrinking his enormous waistline and making him more presentable for his first meeting with Francesca.
Meanwhile, Casanova pretends to Francesca that he's actually Paprizzio in hopes of winning her heart, even as Casanova's real fiancee does a bit of spying on him to her displeasure.
It's the stuff of door-slamming farce and here, in the second half of the film, Hallstrom fulfills the potential promised earlier. It's great fun and it includes more deceptions, more mistaken identities, a hot-air balloon, a traveling acting troupe, a long-lost mother and a date with the hangman.
Hallstrom, whose films include the deliciously magical Chocolat and the character-filled The Cider House Rules, finally captures the whimsy, fantasy and fun of the piece in a rousing finale that will leave you giddy and breathless.
***
Casanova
Starring: Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Lena Olin.
Rated: R, contains sexual situations, adult themes.
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