Barrymore (2012)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 20
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 7
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 1,315
My Rating
Movie Info
Barrymore, set in 1942, follows acclaimed American actor John Barrymore (Christopher Plummer), a member of one of Hollywood's most well-known multi-generational theatrical dynasties. No longer a leading box office star, the film finds Barrymore reckoning with the ravages of his life of excess. He has rented a grand, old theatre to rehearse for a backer's audition to raise money for a revival of his 1920 Broadway triumph in Richard III. It leads him to look back on the highs and lows of his
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Cast
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Christopher Plummer
John Barrymore -
John Plumpis
Frank
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All Critics (20) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (7)
Mr. Plummer stumbles beautifully, poignantly and often, leering and searching through a haze of memory or, with concern edged with panic, calling for 'a line, a line' much as Richard III calls for a horse.
Top CriticYou wish you could be seeing this performance live, as it's meant to be seen - but lacking that, "Barrymore" on the big screen provides its own thrills.
Plummer is marvelous, flitting between reminiscence and Shakespearean recitation as a gifted artist aware of his own wretchedness.
Plummer's Barrymore shows flashes of glory as he delivers bits and pieces of various Shakespearean roles.
While Plummer acts his heart out, the script becomes one punchline after another.
It was brilliant as a one-man stage show; it was never a good candidate for film.
In spite of creating a CGI world around Plummer, much is lost in this translation, making an impressive performance from him seem inert.
As an acting masterclass, it's educational and entertaining.
Christopher Plummer works hard to give us his idea of John Barrymore in this record of a theatrical tour-de-force, which is more dramatically florid than biographically enlightening.
Director Erik Canuel fails to deliver us from the inevitable hermeticism of the material.
Erik Canuel, who directed and adapted the work, employs a host of cinematic techniques to enhance Plummer's spell-binding turn as a crotchety has-been who, in 1942, attempts to revive his career by playing Richard III.
In the hands of an actor of such calibre as Plummer, it is riveting stuff. And often hilarious, risqué, even coarse on occasion
Audience Reviews for Barrymore
Super Reviewer
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- John Barrymore: What's the line?! What's the line?!
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- John Barrymore: I don't have to tell you that divorces cost more than marriages... But god damn it they're worth it!
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Latest News on Barrymore
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