(published in SB Indie Jan 12, 2006.)
First Looks
Casanova (108 mins.; R: sexual content)
This playful, sensuous date movie with Heath Ledger playing the charismatic Casanova (and doing so charismatically) and Sienna Miller as the improbably progressive feminist who falls for him is better than you think. The film, by the director of Chocolat, narrowly escapes its fate as a pathetically predictable love story about mistaken identities and the lovable cads who use them (though it’s that too). Instead, it’s enjoyable, lightweight eye and brain candy — not quite clever or gorgeous, but almost. The settings and costumes are beautiful; the actors seem to know just how campy to play their parts without going overboard; and the writing is just good enough to make us care what happens to the characters when they all get their happy endings.
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