Jeanne Du Barry is directed by Maïwenn director of Pardonnez-moi (2006), All About Actresses (2009), Polisse (2011), My King (2015) and DNA (2020).
The thing about historical drama pieces like Jeanne Du Barry is you have to have strong performances as well strong, sharp and investing writing. This movie has neither of those, which ultimately takes away a lot of what the movie is trying to go for.
The landscape shots of rural France are undeniably beautiful as well as telling a small story on their own, the costumes are solid as well. While there are far better examples of films that have had much more captivating costume design, Jeanne Du Barry still has some really appealing design choices that do capture the eye of the viewer.
Having that said everything else completely falls flat, as I said before the main problem here is the performances and writing. Johnny Depp’s French accent (who plays Louis XV) is on a comedic level of bad and has absolutely no chemistry with Maïwenn (who plays Jeanne Du Barry). It’s not just Johnny Depp either everyone else turns in incredibly lacking performances that needed so much more power and a far bigger push to put these performances over the finish line.
The movie attempts to be lighthearted and tragic at the same time, something Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite played into only that film understood a balance and had the acting plus writing to back it up. Unfortunately with Jeanne Du Barry it comes off as a mishmash of confused ideas that I’m not entirely sure Maïwenn herself knows what she was trying to do.
Finally the movie wants you to buy Louis XV and Jeanne Du Barry’s bond, the problem is it’s very lacking both in development and interest from the viewer. There isn’t anything compelling or memorable here at all, it really feels like a bunch of wall of text that really does not mean anything.
I definitely think there could have been something here with Jeanne Du Barry. The end result is completely lacking and needed so much more power put into the script and performances.
Jeanne Du Barry is available on all VOD platforms.
3/10 D-
Jerome Reviews... 