Shocker: Johnny Depp’s Comeback Movie ‘Jeanne du Barry’ Doesn’t Totally Suck

Johnny Depp has made far more headlines than movies during the past five years, thanks to a series of marital, legal, and professional scandals that have considerably dented his A-list stature. Those continue to this day, as the release of Jeanne du Barry has been greeted with a fresh round of reports that the Hollywood icon was a scary figure on the set of writer/director/star Maïwenn’s French period piece. (Maïwenn has since walked back those rumors.) Yet amidst all this external noise, Depp’s “comeback” performance turns out to be infinitely less wild and over-the-top than his tabloid reputation. Embodying King Louis XV with an understatement that’s as wry as it is imposing, the actor proves that he remains one of cinema’s most magnetic presences—even if his latest project doesn’t do terribly much with him.

Following its world premiere at 2023’s Cannes Film Festival, Jeanne du Barry, which hits theaters May 2, is primarily notable for Depp’s participation, even though he’s merely a supporting player in its 18th-century tale. Instead, the true focus is on its title character (Maïwenn), who’s born Jeanne Vaubernier to a cook and a monk. Seemingly consigned to a simple life of obscurity, the young Jeanne enchants an aristocrat but is seen as a threat by this older man’s wife and is thus sent to a convent, where her fondness for racy reading material gets her tossed onto the streets. There, with her poor mother by her side (and working as her de facto agent), she becomes a prostitute of some repute. Jeanne especially catches the eye of Count Guillaume du Barry (Melvil Poupaud), who takes her into his home, where she comes to love his son Adolph (Thibault Bonenfant) and is befriended by the elder Duc de Richelieu (Pascal Greggory).

Much of Jeanne’s early days are recounted in Jeanne du Barry with the aid of dignified narration, regal compositions (emphasis on magisterial master shots), and Stephen Warbeck’s imperial orchestral score, all of which lend the film its reserved, semi-dreamy stateliness. Jeanne’s initial trajectory is the stuff of fairy tales, since after wowing high-society’s men, Jeanne learns that the King (Depp) has an interest in meeting her. This is a boon for everyone involved, including Guillaume, who gladly accepts a pouch full of gold coins as payment for facilitating Jeanne and Louis’ rendezvous at Versailles. The proceedings get a minor jolt from Jeanne’s subsequent session with the ruler’s trusted valet Jean-Benjamin de La Borde (Benjamin Lavernhe), who lays out the specific rules and behaviors required of those entering the monarch’s orbit. Of particularly amusing note is the demand that Jeanne never turns her back on the King; instead, she must take tiny backward steps whenever departing.

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