The Libertine
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: November 23, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
8
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Not since Philip Kaufman's 2000 "Quills," the story of the Marquis de Sade, have we had so debauched a literary and movie hero, and Johnny Depp plays him with the relish of an actor who has made odd-ball characters his specialty. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
If your idea of a good time is watching a disjointed period piece featuring a scrawny dog defecating, dozens of dissipated people fornicating and a syphilitic Johnny Depp with oozing pustules on his face, The Libertine may be just the movie for you. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A glorious disaster. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
What comes from the mouth of Johnny Depp...not the crucial spark of wit or insight that could encourage us to spend two hours with this cruel bore. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Dunmore creates a memorably grimy London, but the moral grime covering the film proves less memorable. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A trying experience. As we watch Rochester fall apart in spectacular fashion, it's clear that a major lure for the venturesome Depp was the chance to play a grotesque, to become a pestilent physical wreck with an artificial silver nose. There's more in that role for the actor, however, than there is for us. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It doesn't help matters that The Libertine seems to unload every olde English cliche on file. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Despite its title, the movie could hardly be less erotic. Indeed, promiscuity has never looked more totally unappealing, and its final scenes of Wilmot's advanced venereal disease are enough to make you take a vow of celibacy. A great date movie, this is not. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldPeter Debruge
What is most beguiling about The Libertine is that it allows Wilmot to self-destruct without ever giving us cause to care or relate. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleNeva Chonin
There is little debauchery to be had in Laurence Dunmore's adaptation of The Libertine. In fact, hedonism has never looked so bleak. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The picture is an enormous disappointment... The result is one of the most self-consciously grimy movies on record - it looks as if the negative were developed in a mud bath. Read full review
0
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The Libertine is such a torturous mess that it winds up doing something I hadn't thought possible: It renders Johnny Depp charmless. Read full review
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