Restoration (1995)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Sometimes as stunning as a museum visit, often turn away ugly, and filled with starts and stops that would be more potent as a limited series, where detail could have been greater. A lot is covered in two hours in this brutal look at an ugly time in the many chapters of world history. This takes place during the reign of the great restoration king Charles II of England and Great Britain, a ruler whose life had been part of "Forever Amber" and later the lengthy cable continuing series "The Stuarts", a major part of the often filmed "Nell Gwynn", and as notorious a ladies man as his distant cousin of a century before, Henry VIII. Sam Neill looks the part in the most commanding if ways, subtle in his nobility, yet flamboyant in his excesses.The era was a great time of change in England, and this story focuses on one particularly complex man. Robert Downey Jr. proves once again his great versatility as a great doctor, hired for the king's court, who looses his gift for medicine from an unrequited love for Polly Walker, part of an arranged marriage set up by the king. Downey is dismissed, goes off to treat those suffering from a plague, falls in love once more (with peasant girl Meg Ryan) and proves his strength as a doctor, even under the most tragic circumstances of his own life. There are moments when I had to turn my head, particularly a scene at the beginning involving a patient of Downey's whose chest cavity is open, exposing his innards as he stands erect. The plague scenes are realistically gruesome, with no hiding of the ugliness of that era. Charles' court is lavish, almost operatic in its sets, and the music is gloriously profound. Still, there's a missing element that makes it stand out as terrific, although it's a marvelously good try.

When this movie came out, the movie critics all jumped on and called it a failure. They said it was a hugely disappointing role for Robert Downey, Jr. Although, this movie was not superb, it was at least decent. That's why I never listen to critics. Downey plays an idealistic young surgeon with great promise. Chance has it that King Charles The Second discovers the young surgeon. If he promises not to sleep with the king's mistress, he will marry her and maintain an estate. Downey's Sir Robert is, of course, a man who chases after women, and when he falls in love with her, a spy (played by Hugh Grant) discovers it, reports it to the king, and Sir Robert is banished. Sir Robert finds favor again by devoting himself to treating the victims of the plague of 1660. What I liked about the movie, is that it showed that 1660 was the beginning of the transition to the modern World. Superstitions were falling, and surgeons like Sir Robert were starting to be seen as an asset. The King was even getting into science and medicine. Robert Downey, Jr. also does an excellent job. So, why all the bad reviews?

This movie is a awesome experience, it takes place in the most interesting time and place for new and exciting history. The hero, played by Robert Downey Jr. is fun loving and smart and charming, as a doctor and whore monger his love of life is infectious!!! Literally... his rise through the story is amazing and funny, yet we see him changing slowly and through his eyes we see the frailty and horror of the human condition in its most high and low of times. The King, played by Sam Neil is the most funloving Royal of all times, his is brilliant and funny and yet very Kingly. His love of the arts and engineering and medicine are what every one should aspire to in their reigns. The rest of the cast is very good, Meg Ryan's hair is funky, straw like, and needs conditioning, thats a joke. But she is excellent and has a great irish accent. Hope you enjoy this classic.

I'm not sure we saw the same movie and I'm puzzled.This is a tremendously rich, emotional film, very true to Rose Tremain's novel, and just wonderful.The casting is divine, and I thought Meg Ryan was fine as Catherine.Charles II is my favorite English monarch and Sam Neill portrayed him just as I pictured him.Robert Downey was Marivel to a T, as was David Thewliss as Pierce.The costumes and scenery were magnificent -- from the palace to the countryside and back -- and those fabulous Spaniels running through the palace and environs was just how I'd pictured England's most enlightened monarch's place to be!How anyone can find this movie to be anything less than a gem is beyond me.