This film about libertine Marquis de Sade, who wrote explicit pornography in France in the 1790's, is strangely devoid of eroticism. According to this movie, his clandestine writings provided the general populace with the visions of sexual freedom they craved. Though the scandalous de Sade is considered as much a criminal, his conviction to what he believes is truer than his sanctimonious and hypocritical persecutors. Geoffrey Rush as de Sade spits out acerbic recriminations of society, religion and human nature, but it is obvious there is more to this complex man than what appears on the screen. The story plods, the dialog is mediocre and the themes of hypocrisy and of the misunderstood artist are trite.
Quills is melodramatic claptrap.
The film wears a prophylactic, protecting the audience from the possibility of a genuinely affecting story.