Restoration | Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill

Restoration | Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill | Surprisingly great!

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Restoration

	Restoration Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill Miramax, 1997 average customer review:based on 49 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A fantastic premise is utterly blown in this film by director Michael Hoffman and screenwriter Rupert Walters (the two collaborated previously on the winning Some Girls). Robert Downey Jr. plays Robert Merivel, King Charles II's (Sam Neill) spirited young physician in 17th-century England. The king offers to set Merivel up for life in exchange for one small favor: marry the royal mistress (Polly Walker) to provide his highness some cover for his philandering. But Merivel blows it by falling in love with the woman, and he is cast out of his pampered paradise to reinvent himself as a serious man helping victims of the plague beyond the palace's walls. It's a superb notion, and the film looks just terrific, particularly Charles's court, where scientific and artistic innovation flourishes. But somehow the story completely falls apart once Merivel goes on his quest for salvation. The scenes aren't there, the characters are underdeveloped, the drama is clunky. The whole enterprise feels as if an editor tried to salvage a major failure and barely came up with something coherent. --Tom Keogh

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Interesting Movie

Restoration, was an excellent movie, great cast, one I look forward to viewing again & again. Great DVD to add to my historical library collection.

Surprisingly great!

I loved living this period of history, which is not often portrayed, while watching this film. Much sadness and tragedy but a heartwarming ending.

Eye appealing beyond words,but a questionable screenplay

RESTORATION is a film of great beauty and passionate design.The period detail in this film is rivaled IMO only by AMADEUS and TOPSY-TURVY for sheer in -depth research into every minute detail of costume and set design.Yes, it did win those two Oscars and rightly so!

RESTORATION is one of those magnificent films that is flawed by it's screenplay that was reduced from Rose Tremain's novel.The plot....(here we go!)... concerns one highly intelligent but flawed and immature physician of London in 1663,one Sir Robert Merivel,magnificently portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.Merivel is in practice with his good Quaker Friend John Pearce (David Thewlis) when Merivel becomes one of the many pawns in King Charles 11's ("The Merry Monarch") ascension to the Throne in the Age of "Restoration".The shuttered theatres are again opened (the fact that the music chosen for this film is primarily from the Restoration Theatre composer, Henry Purcell shows again the high quality of authenticity in this film!))and there is an increase in the pursuance of knowledge and medical advancement in opposition to the archaic and superstitious practices of the former years.Merivel,though,does not heed the advice of his friend Pearce and does the King's bidding by accepting a place at The Royal Court.This is when Merivel is drawn into the King's web of Royal whim and Merivel becomes the most miserable he has ever been.Why? The King has ordered that Merivel marry the Royal Mistress,in order to appease and avoid scandal,but that Merivel is to NOT fall in love with The Lady Celia!Merivel does,though.He cannot help it.The King banishes Merivel,losing all only to now return to Pearce and resume medicine.There Merivel encounters madness and disease of all sorts and sets about to bring his medical knowledge to these patients.One is Catherine (Meg Ryan) whom Merivel acutely realizes has been damaged by past experiences and is not mad as suspected.They become intimate and she eventually bears his child, only to die in childbirth.Distraught,Merivel takes his young daughter and flees to London only to find that the Plague is consuming the city and that Celia is sick.Posing as Pearce,who has since died,Merivel is summoned to the Palace and diagnoses the sick Celia as needing love and understanding from the King (a marvelous Sam Neill).The London fire then strikes the City and Merivel tries to find his infant daughter.He is cast adrift out of the city,but in the end his daughter is returned, the King's favour is restored and Merivel has learned the lessons of compassion and true love.All is restored!!!.....WHEW!....AND I LEFT OUT A LOT!!!! Now,could you follow that??? That now is the one rub with this film;the book is all there and it is crammed into 2 hours! It doesn't work.Knowing Tremain's book helps immensely with filling in what either the director,script super or editor left out! Other than that,RESTORATION is a GRADE A "super-flawed" film that I love more every time I see it,but I will always have to hold it to 4 stars because of the screenplay! If there ever comes out a Director's Cut I will be the first in line at Amazon.Until then....
P.S. The soundtrack by James Newton Howard is one of my top 5 favorites for original score with period original song added.

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Yes, it's beautiful, but it's more than that

Beyond the obligatory enthusiasm about the lush settings and costumes, this is a lovely full arc of character development. Robert Merivel enters as an immature, self-absorbed goofball, with an irrepressible spark of the man he could become glinting through the coating of muck. He gets dragged through a series of harsh refining situations and emerges with the dross burned off. The final act of restoration (and you thought that only referred to the historic time period) is a solid two-tissue moment.
Robert's friend Pierce is a charming jewel of a character who doesn't make anywhere near the drastic developmental leap that Merivel does, but doesn't need to -- he's a perfect balance quiet integrity to Merivel's extreme dramatics.

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Restoration

Won 2 Academy awards, Restoration is Robert Downey at his best!!! Brilliant cast and story. Tragic with a happy ending, please don't miss this.

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