Delayed Reaction: Chaplin

The Pitch: American Gandhi with lower stakes.

Robert Downey Jr. has two Oscar nominations. One is the transcendent work in Tropic Thunder*. The other, the one that really got people excited for what his career could be, was for Chaplin. It makes sense. While the movie is uneven, RDJ is great in it. He does a wonderful job playing Chaplin, especially the physical Tramp bits. It's hard to see this movie working without someone of his calibur at the center.

*Downey's Tropic Thunder nomination and Heath Leger's The Dark Knight win makes the 2008 Supporting Actor field one of the most interesting in recent memory.

The rest of the movie though has issues. There's just too much of Chaplin's life to cover and so much of it feels short-changed as a result. His rise to fame just kind of happens. Classics like The Gold Rush and The Boy get "blink and you'll miss them" references. The Great Dictator gets a little more time, but it doesn't seem all that significant. They jump through hoops to not be too harsh on Chaplin for how young all his brides were. I think there's even a way to make a movie that covers all this time, but it needs a clearer through line or focus.

I am a sucker for a good montage set to uplifting instrumental music, so the clips from the Academy Awards ceremony honoring Chaplin at the end got me good. And I like that they kept the actual clips of Chaplin for that.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend