Chaplin is a biopic. It starts with an older Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) at his home in Switzerland talking to fictional character George Hayden (Anthony Hopkins) about his biography. Through this conversation, they take you through Charlie's life story, starting with his debut in vaudeville. Charlie's mother, Hannah Chaplin (Geraldine Chaplin), would sing songs as part of a vaudeville act. One night when she was being heckled, she couldn't continue with the song. That's when a young Chaplin rushed onto the stage and finished it for her. The crowd loved it. But it wasn't enough to keep food on the table and Charlie and his brother were taken away (not to mention his mother wasn't the most stable mentally).
When Charlie got a little bit older he was reunited with his brother Sydney Chaplin (Paul Rhys). Sydney helped get him his first real gig on vaudeville. When that went well, they sent him to America to try his luck. That's when he was discovered by Mack Sennett (Dan Aykroyd) and brought to Hollywood. Charlie was mesmerized by motion picture. At first he played small roles, but would steal the scene and go off script. Then they gave him starring roles. And soon he was directing and writing his own film. He saved enough money to build his own studio. But with the invention of talkies came doubts on Charlie's future.
I could go on and on all day about this, so I'll just stop there. There is much more included in the movie including his many barely legal romances, friendships, and communism. You can watch (or read) to find out in more detail. I loved this film (and it might be that I just really like Chaplin to begin with). I thought that Robert Downey Jr. was fan-frickin-tastic. He nailed some of the most iconic scenes (or just comedic bits) that Chaplin did. Even though the movie was over two hours long, I wanted more. More details please!! Don't worry, I read online that there is at least two hours of footage on the cutting room floor just calling out my name. The only thing I didn't really care for was the re-telling the story with that George Hayden character. I'm sure they were one of the first to do that but I feel that every bio-pic I watch is like that. It's not necessary. Except there might have been one scene where it actually made sense to have him telling his story. The scene where he first invents The Tramp and I guess it might have helped with some of the transitions. But I feel like it was a bit of a cop out.
Rating: ****
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