***SPOILERS***
Restoration I didn't see in the cinema, but I wish I had, because it is one of the richest feasts for the eye I have ever seen and it must have been magnificent on the big screen. One of the offerings in RTE's regular movie slot, I had nothing else lined up and decided to watch it, since Robert Downey, Jr, was in it, which usually means a good script. I'm awfully glad I did, as it is one of the most *satisfying* films I have ever seen, with one of the happiest endings.
It is set in seventeenth-century England, when Charles II (played by Sam Neill) is on the newly-restored throne and reaction is strong against the primness and austerity of Cromwell's Puritanism. Excess is everywhere, and nowhere more so than in Charles' court: rich fabrics, embroidered with gold and silver thread, fabulous paintings, tapestries, everything decorated (with decorations on the decorations), rich reds and golds glowing on the screen, lushness and luxury everywhere. Robert Downey, Jr, plays Robert Merivel , a young doctor bored with his studies, whose best friend, Pearce (David Thewlis), is a sober young Quaker with none of Merivel's joie de vivre but with a good solid head on his shoulders. He brings Merivel to see a medical curiosity - a man whose heart, beating away in his chest, is covered only by a leather flap replacing skin lost in an accident. Only Merivel of all the doctors present has the courage to reach out and grasp the exposed heart in his hands, and the king, who, concealed, has been watching, chooses him to examine his dying spaniel, Lulu. Merivel, we learn, has a natural gift for healing, and he manages to cure the dog, thereby becoming appointed to the court and a favourite of the king's. Unfortunately this is about the worst thing that could have happened: Merivel, without the guidance of Pearce, becomes a dandy and a dilettante, much like Charles himself, the eternal hobbyist who dabbles in everything but masters nothing. Eventually the king marries him off to one of his mistresses in order to divert the suspicions and jealousies of another mistress, and confers on him a country estate to which both are packed off, Merivel with strict instructions not to lay so much as a finger on the lady.
Human nature being what it is, of course he falls in love with her, and eventually is betrayed by a travelling portrait painter (Hugh Grant, actually quite funny here rather than irritating), whereupon he is stripped of his estate and baronetcy and cast out into the world again. He goes to his friend Pearce, now working in a Quaker asylum for women, and stays there, using his natural gift for healing, long-submerged in the excesses of the court, to ease the lot of these poor lost people. However, he falls for one of the patients, Meg Ryan (with the worst, most painful Irish accent I have ever heard - I couldn't wait for her to die so she would stop talking), and gets her pregnant. All the while his friend is slowly dying of TB, and after his death Merivel leaves with Meg to return to London. She dies in childbirth and he is left alone with the baby in a London beset with the Plague and about to be razed in the Great Fire.I will not finish the story, as simply describing the ending couldn't compare with actually seeing it - with the wave of satisfaction and happiness it brings. Merivel, even in his dandy days, is such a happy-go-lucky, endearing character we only want the best for him, and he ends the film a wiser, more compassionate man, finally in tune with himself and his genuine skill as a doctor which was wasted for so many years.
A large part of the charm of the film is Downey. He has a knack of making the characters he plays appealing and attractive, and Merivel is no different. The film is absorbing because we really care what happens to him: we actively want things to work out, instead of sitting back and seeing what happens. A lot of this is down to a good script and a good role for Downey: but he brings a special polish to the part that really makes the difference. The acting overall is good, apart from Meg Ryan who I thought was hammy; I could be biased though because of the dreadful, dreadful accent. Sam Neill is well-cast as the king: intelligent, cynical, conscious of his power without flaunting it, a manipulator of lives who ends the film somewhat sadder and wiser, aware that even his power has limits. David Thewlis is excellent as Pearce, sober, industrious, a genuine friend: the character oozes dependability, tinged with that slight censoriousness of the religious towards those who enjoy life right now and don't worry much about hereafter. And Ian McKellen is marvellous as always as the old retainer at Merivel's country house whose kindness and good sense play a large part in Merivel's growing up. I thoroughly recommend Restoration: it looks *amazing* (winning Oscars for its art direction and costumes), is well-paced and always interesting, and the characters will thoroughly suck you in. These are people we can really care about, rare in movies nowadays, and their story, as well as that of Restoration England, is beautifully told in this film.
(c) Jennifer Mellerick 1999