Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
An art dealer, Charles Mortdecai, searches for a stolen painting rumored to contain a secret code that gains access to hidden Nazi gold.
Mortdecai is a muddled, tonally inconsistent caper comedy that wastes a talented cast. The plot is convoluted without being cleverly intricate, stringing together set pieces around a MacGuffin (a stolen painting hiding Nazi gold) that never generates genuine tension or wit. Johnny Depp's affected performance as the mustachioed art dealer is polarizing at best — a one-note caricature that exhausted its charm well before the finale. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, and Paul Bettany are largely wasted. Cinematography is competent and occasionally stylish, with some pleasant location work across Europe. The film aims for a Clouseau-meets-Bond comedic register but lacks the discipline or originality to pull it off, feeling like a pale imitation of better British eccentric comedies. The ending resolves things perfunctorily with little payoff.