A touching and depressive story

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2018)

The movie tells the tragic story of Joseph (John) Merrick who lived in Victorian England. As a biopic, it is focused on the relation between Merrick and Dr. Frederic Treves who saves him from freak shows and arranges a permanent room in London hospital where Merrick spends rest of his life. Except some deviations which probably don't affect the main theme, the movie in general sticks to the historical facts. Anthony Hopkins displays a superb performance as Dr. Treves who finds himself in a moral dilemma: his humane approach to help Merrick from the cruelties of outside world is counterbalanced by his scientific curiosity which drives him to study Merrick's abnormal physical condition and exhibit him in conferences reminiscent of despicable freak shows. In comparison to the pictures of actual J. Merrick of his time, the makeup artist does a phenomenal job on John Hurt to recreate Merrick's disfigured appearance. The fact that all this happens in a pre-CGI era further adds to the value of the work. Finally, John Hurt delivers a top notch performance in a difficult acting job where he successfully plays Merrick's physical impediments along with his mental and psychological state.
On the negative side, the pace of the movie is a bit slow and the narrative is quite depressing which is deliberately aided by the black and white shooting of the movie. Merrick's physical condition and the resulting mental burden on himself get us all moving but can't carry the movie for 2 hrs alone. The surrounding stories involving his abuse by his "manager" and others, the curiosity he evokes in London high society lack in human drama and tension. The subplots of these stories are bland and too weak to pick up the crawling tempo. Finally, the movie is very categorical in displaying the attitude of people towards Merrick. Overall, we are exposed to three types of people of the time: those living underground and suffer silently due to their freakish appearance sympathize with him; the general public react very cruelly on streets and pubs towards Merrick; the concert going, educated, higher class elites on the other hand are benevolent and behave more accommodating.