Watch for the B-U-T in this review

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2017)

If you look at the box office numbers and the IMDb score you will quickly get the feeling that this was not one of Depp's most well received films.
And you would be correct.
But here is the B-U-T I promised you. And it goes ... BUT this is nonetheless a great performance.
And that is the catch. To this reviewer,the films of Depp are somewhat of a cipher. We tend to associate him with some of his most overblown roles -- such the pirate, the boy with scissors for hands, and so on.
We do this because he creates the characters so effectively. So effortlessly.
But what even his most die-hard fans tend to overlook is that he creates the overblown characters so well because at his core Depp is one of the greatest living actors of our age. He simply hides it too well.
What this film offers, aside from a mood and setting to die for, is a real chance to Depp to show what he can do in a serious part ... and he sells it like pumpkins at Holloween.
For this reason, as a missing puzzle piece in the archive of his work, I think it deserves special merit.