Chaplin (1992)

Summary

Charlie Chaplin rises from lower class scamp to world famous comic with a trove of barely-legal beauties at his side.

Director

Richard Attenborough

Downey Factor

High. He plays the title character.

Character

Charlie Chaplin, famed silent film star (from his vaudeville days to old age)

Looks

All right, period costuming is effective.

Performance

Academy Award nominee for Best Actor.

Line

You see, when everyone thought we were having an affair, we were married. Now that everyone realizes we're married, we're getting divorced.

Accent

British

Love & Sex

He romances a variety of young girls, but for a film obsessed with his sex life, it's not that lurid.

Dies, Gay or Villain

No.

Cast

Marisa Tomei, Dan Akroyd, Kevin Kline, Geraldine Chaplin, David Duchovny, James Woods, Anthony Hopkins

Connection

Geraldine Chaplin in Home for the Holidays.

Kevin Kline in Soapdish.

Marisa Tomei in Only You, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Endgame.

Nancy Travis in Air America.

James Woods in True Believer.

RDJ Says

The problem was that the studio didn't want a very long movie, so they told Attenborough to cut whole segments of the film. If they allowed him to make the film he envisioned, it would have been a much better movie ... Chaplin was the culmination of an opportunity, and the biggest humiliation I've ever experienced. It was like winning the lottery, then going to prison. I realized that nothing that had worked for me before was going to work here. I'd watch one of Charlie's films, but by the end of it I was wildly depressed, because I realized that what he'd done in this twenty-minute short was more expressive and funnier than everything I've thought about doing my whole life ... There were times when I just thought, "Oh my God, I'll never be able to show my face again. I don't know what I'm doing, and everyone's going to find out." ... I was challenged artistically. This was the first time I admitted that I didn't know what I was doing. You know, change only occurs when you move out of your comfort zones ... Charlie Chaplin was, is, really about healing through entertainment ... My point of identification with Chaplin was the intense desire to show the humor in the sadness. And to want to almost disown the healing ability of that, because there's no satisfaction in the search until you come to terms with whatever your blocks are. I think what he is really looking for throughout the whole movie is love ... When I accepted the part, they didn't tell me that I also had to do the acrobatic stuff of Charlie. That has cost me a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Though I now can say, "I did all my stunts myself." Working on Chaplin was really intensive and cost me years of my life, but if I could do it all over again, no doubt I would do it the same way ... I didn't have [crow's feet] when we began. You know what everybody says, "They give you character." But, to me, they serve as a reminder of what I've done on this show ... I remember after doing Chaplin, 12 boxes [of costumes] arriving from the studio, I think there were 56 outfits. I'm sure I have 3 or 4 left. I donated some, wore some for theme weddings. I wish I'd kept 'em all. It would be fun to do a retrospective.

Lit Reference

My Autobiography by Charles Chaplin
The film is structured around a fictional meeting between Chaplin and the editor of this book.

Time & Place

Story goes from 1890s up to the 1970s in London, Los Angeles and Switzerland.

Gossip

He was tripping on mushrooms while filming some of the elderly Chaplin scenes in Switzerland. Robert Altman believed that Richard Attenborough had ruined the one shot that Hollywood had to make a movie about Charlie Chaplin, and he wasn't shy about telling Robert Downey Jr his negative opinion about Chaplin while they were working on Short Cuts.

Availability

Released in theaters 25 December 1992. Available on DVD in Region 1, 2, 3 and 4, and on Blu-Ray

Foreign Titles

Italy: Charlot
Japan: Charlie (title is in English)

Rotten Tomatoes

61% Fresh | 44 Reviews

Critical View

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Robert Downey Jr. succeeds almost uncannily in playing Chaplin; the physical resemblance is convincing, but better is the way Downey captures Chaplin's spirit, even in costume as the Tramp.

Vincent Canby, The New York Times: Robert Downey Jr. is good and persuasive as the adult Charlie when the material allows, and close to brilliant when he does some of Charlie's early vaudeville and film sketches. His slapstick routines are graceful, witty and, most important, really funny.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stones: All the nuances Robert Downey Jr. invests in playing Charlie Chaplin, the clown prince of the silent screen, are blunted by a skim job of a script and inert direction from that Madame Tussaud of film biographers, Richard Attenborough.

Does It Hold Up

Yes. Whether or not history considers this the best Chaplin biopic that could've possibly been made, it's a great performance in a film that embraces the comedic side of Chaplin's life story without shying away from or glossing over the darker side of it.

2 Reasons to See It

1. Robert Downey Jr was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar at 27 for starring in this movie and it remains one of his best performances.
2. The physical comedy!

Overall

A must-see.

If You Like It

You might also like Good Night & Good Luck (2005), Oppenheimer (2023)

Photos

Video