Cady's Take:

This film is an enchanting fable propelled by the acting charms and charisma of its two stars- Johnny Depp & the Great Marlon Brando. Depp displays a wonderful performance as the world’s greatest lover. His screen presence was completely convincing. There was no doubt in my mind that he was DON JUAN DEMARCO.

Poor Johnny has been rejected only once, by the enchanting and innocent Ana, (Geraldine Pailhas), but, as is so often the case, she was "the only one who really mattered." So, with no possibility of a life with his true love, Don Juan decides to kill himself. He climbs high atop a billboard and demands that the police send him the greatest living swordfighter so he can die in a duel. What he gets instead is Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando), a massively overweight, near-to-retirement psychiatrist who pretends to be Don Octavio de Flores and talks Don Juan down from his perch.

Reality and fantasy intertwine in this movie as Don Octavio enrolls Don Juan as his patient and falls under his spell. He searches to rekindle the fire in his own life inspired by the stories of Don Juan's conquests with 1502 girls. Don Juan regales his psychiatrist with phantasmagoric tales about his first time with a woman, his romantic adventures with a harem of women in Arabia, and his depression over being rejected by his one true love Ana. Don Juan DeMarco, his name is Italian, he speaks with a Castilian accent, he claims to have come from Mexico, and he lives in the US. You’ve just got to love him!

DeMarco asks the four essential questions about existence: "What is sacred?” "Of what is the spirit made?” "What is worth living for?” and "What is worth dying for?" The proposed answer to all is "love". If you've never seen this movie, do yourself a favor and rent it. Don Juan DeMarco is a rare "feel good" film that not only entertains, but also might even move one to examine their own concept of love. A hint to our male readers…….. every man should watch this movie! It depicts what every woman desires...

Well it’s official: Johnny Depp can make any script believable. The premise of “Don Juan DeMarco” is so farfetched that after the warm, fuzzy feeling that Depp inspired wore off I found it hard to believe that I actually enjoyed the film – but I really did!

Depp is adorable as Don Juan DeMarco - or at least someone who thinks he is Don Juan DeMarco. He lives in the present day (the movie was made in 1995) and after an apparent suicide attempt he is committed to a mental hospital for observation where he is assigned a crotchety, close-to-retirement psychologist named Jack Mickler (Brando). Johnny Depp really does a beautiful job in this movie and - while I do not have a Johnny Depp screen saver like Cady does - I do have to admit that he is one beautiful man and a great actor to boot. To imagine another actor in this role is impossible. Depp is probably the only actor on earth who could make us believe that he might really be Don Juan DeMarco. Jack (Brando) the psychiatrist learns life lessons from his new patient – it’s an old formula but it works again here. Brando is basically forgettable and I can imagine other actors in the role that perhaps would have given it some meaning. Depp carries the film however, with the sheer force of his charm and (serious) sexual energy.

This is the kind of movie that is so improbable that you simply have to give yourself up to the story and enjoy it. Depp’s portrayal of DeMarco is simultaneously carefree and careful – he believes in the fairy tale of his character, not the character itself, which I think is what prevents his performance from becoming cartoon-ish and really pulls the viewer into his fantasy – or reality...