Reviews

Rarely has television fit a role and an actor together as perfectly as Rumpole and Leo McKern. (A couple of other examples would be Vic Morrow in "Combat!" and Derek Jacobi in "I, Cladius".) The singular pleasure these episodes afford is watching McKern act as the mildly cynical, but resolutely libertarian, barrister. It is easy to see why McKern came to loathe playing the part since it is the ultimate case of typecasting. One can less think of McKern sans Rumpole than he can Connery sans Bond. Better to rewatch Rumpole than the colorless blather on Court TV.

The scripts and additional cast are good enough to make repeated watching of McKern worthwhile.

I frankly don't find much value in movie reviews, amateur or professional, so I won't belabor my points. Simply put, this is the smartest film I've ever seen. A coherent plot and intelligent dialog are critical to my movie pleasure, and this one has them. It is so good that it is almost novelistic, which is not to say that it could have been taken from a novel. Some review guide said of this movie that it is "talk, talk, talk." Exactly! The conversations are witty, charming, and often funny. Be advised that this is not akin to the insipid "My Dinner With Andre," with its metaphysical posturing. One must say this carefully about any movie, but there are actually things to learn from this film, though it is far more entertaining than didactic. The acting is mature and magnificent. I doubt that Mastroianni was ever in a better role. Jean-Louis Barrault and Hanna Schygulla are brilliant. This, along with his other excellent films, should have made director Scola one of the titans of modern cinema. Instead it has never made it to DVD and you will be fortunate to ever see it. (Update: It is now available as an all- region Blu-Ray.)

This is a charming and emotive film. On the other hand, the DVD I purchased has been "reformatted to fit your TV" by the clods at Columbia Tristar. There is no excuse for not providing the film in widescreen format, except that Hollywood treats all films like the moronic, disposible trash that it is so used to producing. What a shame.