# Man in the Iron Mask, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Michael Redman

    Iron Mask sinks under its own weight

    The Man In The Iron Mask
    A Film Review By Michael Redman
    Copyright 1998 By Michael Redman

    ** (out of ***)

Audiences flocking to see this sixth film adaptation of the final of Alexandre Dumas' "Three Musketeers" trilogy are mostly going to view the Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio in his dual role. The filmmakers must have been counting on this in advance and that's why they sabotaged what could have been an exciting movie.

It's 1662, many years after the heydays of the Musketeers and the four friends have aged and gone their separate ways. Aramis (Jeremy Irons) is the leader of the militant Jesuits. Athos (John Malkovich) is devoted to his son Raul (Peter Sarsgaard). D'Artagnan (Gabriel Byrne) is the captain of the new generation of Musketeers and guards young King Louis XIV (DiCaprio) with an intense allegiance for a mysterious but too-guessable reason. Porthos (Gerald Depardieu) is attempting to work his way through France's vast supplies of wine and women, two and three at a time.

The king is a perfect example of why the French Revolution occurred with such a vengeance. When Raul's sweetheart catches the royal eye, he sends Athos' son to the front of a border skirmish so the young man will be killed. This unites three of the four in a conspiracy to replace him with the enigmatic Bastille prisoner (also played by DiCaprio) clad in an iron mask to hide his identity.

The story has a lot of things going for it: political intrigue, aging heroes, regal corruption, swashbuckling action and the potential for the ultimate buddies film. We get very little of any of it on screen.

It's a full hour and a half of not much, before there's any of the swordplay that could have made the film something more than an eye-feast for teenage girls. During that final 30 minutes, when they finally get down to "One for all and all for one", there's the promise that was made, but it's too little too late.

All of the Musketeers roles are skillfully performed by the actors although the characters are devoid of much personality. DiCaprio, more than adequate as Jack in "Titanic", stumbles through both his roles here and was a poor choice by writer/director Randall Wallace who ironically scripted the wildly successful "Braveheart". DiCaprio can't hold his own on screen with the seasoned foursome.

Maybe someday someone will take the last half hour of this film and film a competent beginning to it. Until then you should plan on buckling your swashes elsewhere.

(Michael Redman has written this column for 23 years. As he writes this, it's April Fool's Day and the March summer seems to be over. Good trick! Redman@bvoice.com for interesting electrons.)

[This appeared in the 4/2/98 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com] -- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman

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