Canal-Hopping
Luscious Venice, frisky cast, keep 'Casanova' afloat

2005 was a great year for Heath Ledger at the movies. By now everyone knows he gives the performance of the year as a lovelorn ranch hand in Brokeback Mountain, breaking hearts with minimal dialogue and no big, showy speeches. But don't forget his riotously woozy comic turn as the stoned surf shop owner who mentors the skate kids in Lords Of Dogtown. And now Ledger is back onscreen in yet another astounding persona-change, playing Casanova in Lasse Hallstrom's luscious-looking comedy of love, sex, fame and deception in 18th-Century Venice
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Hallstrom's Casanova does not pretend to be a factual biography about the real-life poet, philosopher and famous seducer of women. Instead, it's a frisky farce about the myth of Casanova, and a handful of people—including the man himself—who get caught up in it. The original story was concocted by rookie screenwriter Kimberly Simi, with some draft work contributed by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, with whom Simi shares screenplay credit. Casanova lacks the thematic wit and plangent emotional resonance of Hatcher's Stage Beauty, but Hallstrom makes up for it with gorgeous vistas out of a Canaletto painting (the film was shot on location in the streets and canals of Venice) and the high spirits of his cast.

The film begins late in Casanova's life as the elderly rake recalls an episode he left out of his famous autobiography. Flashback to Venice, ca. 1750, where youthful Giacomo Casanova (Ledger) is busy living up to his legend, seducing an entire convent full of eager novices while puppet shows devoted to his bawdy exploits play in the street. Rousted out by the soldiers of the Inquisition, Giacomo escapes over the rooftops and into a university lecture hall where an unorthodox young woman, Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller), disguised as a man, is about to explode the smug professors' theory that science and learning are only fit for the male sex.

Told by his protector, the Doge (Tim McInnerny) that he must marry respectably or leave Venice, Giacomo reluctantly betrothes himself to ardent Victoria (Natalie Dormer), evidently the last virgin in Venice (and none to happy about it). But he meets Francesca again when he's forced into a duel by her lovesick brother, Giovanni (Charlie Cox), who secretly adores Victoria. A proto-feminist who writes "heretical" pamphlets (under an assumed name) about womens' rights, Francesca argues for the exclusivity of love and commitment. Casanova represents everything she despises, so of course he's hopelessly smitten by her.

In a city of masks where everyone knows who Casanova is, but few know what he actally looks like, Giacomo hides behind a false identity, hoping to woo Francesca by becoming the man of her dreams. In the meantime, he tries to extricate himself from his arrangement with Victoria, while intercepting Paprizzio (Oliver Platt), the lard merchant from Genoa, to whom Francesca has been unwillingly betrothed by her gold-digging mother (Lena Olin). And things are thrown into further turmoil by Bishop Pucci (Jeremy Irons), chief Inquisitor from Rome, hot on the trail of the fornicator Casanova and the heretical pamphleteer.

Swedish director Hallstrom is famous for his literary adaptations (The Cider House Rules; The Shipping News; Chocolat), but he doesn't have a natural gift for farce. Slapstick and pratfalls often feel clumsy and heavy-handed, and one physical gag about someone hidden under a draped table goes on to monotonous length. But the dialogue is often funny, the film is oppulently staged and photographed (by Oliver Stapleton), and the players are all pros. (Including Omid Djalili as Giacomo's devoted Sancho Panza of a servant.) Ledger makes a charming roisterer, with his low-pitched voice and breezy comic ease. And the swashbuckling finale is not only rollicking good fun, it offers a delightful possibility of escape from a legend that's taken on a life of its own.

CASANOVA With Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons and Lena Olin. Written by Jeffrey Hatcher and Kimberly Simi. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. A Touchstone release. Rated R. 108 minutes. (***)
Review published in Good Times, Jan. 5, 2006