Barrymore

2011

129 mins

Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer portrays legendary Shakespearean actor John Barrymore in this adaptation of the acclaimed stage play by... More

Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer portrays legendary Shakespearean actor John Barrymore in this adaptation of the acclaimed stage play by William Luce. Set in 1942, the final year of Barrymore's life, the film takes place on the stage of a Broadway theatre where the actor is struggling to recreate his performance in the title role of Shakepeare's Richard III.

No longer a leading box office star, Barrymore reckons with the ravages of his life of excess. He has rented the theatre to rehearse for a backer's audition, to raise money and revive his 1920 Broadway triumph. It leads him to look back on the highs and lows of his stunning career and remarkable life.

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Barrymore | Ratings & Reviews

73_%22 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
67_%1,371 reviews
Audience score rating

"God, I love Plummer's performance -- the twiddling fingers, the tipsy sway of the head, the reverberating roar."

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Vulture

"The material itself has a formulaic solo-bioplay rhythm neither performer nor director can fully elude."

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Variety

"In the hands of an actor of such calibre as Plummer, it is riveting stuff. And often hilarious, risqué, even coarse on occasion"

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Urban Cinefile

"The endless repetitions of Luce's monologue grow quickly tiresome and, for all his half-baked efforts at expanding the context of his film, Canuel fails to deliver us from the inevitable hermeticism of the material."

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