Restoration (1995)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Better Late Then Never

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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.

Restoration is a period drama adapted from a novel by Rose Tremain and is directed by Micheal Hoffman. This probably is one of the most overlooked gems in period movies. This movie is visually enchanting replete with lavish costumes and is therefore not surprising to know that this movie had won 2 Oscars – Art direction & Costume Design.Restoration focuses on the gloomy aspects of the era life poverty, illness, medicine and the way of living during those times. This is a movie where you need to listen and absorb. You would enjoy it better watching it alone or with like-minded people. The story revolves around Robert Merivel, (Robert Downey Jr) who is a doctor during the reign of King Charles II (Sam Neil). He longs for the good life at the King's court and achieves it after successfully treating & saving His Majesty's royal dog. On gaining the King's favour Merival gives in completely to the rich life and all that it brings with it. This until he make a deal with the King and is married off to His mistress on the condition that Merivel is not to fall in fall with her. However he does do the one thing that is forbidden of him and ends up losing the King's favour. We are taken on a journey to two worlds; one of luxury another modest. We see how Downey lives in both of them. He returns to work with his Quaker friend John Pearce, (David Thewlis) at a mental institution where he meets and impregnates an Irish cuckold (Meg Ryan). However, when she gives in childbirth, he takes it upon himself to help cure London of the plague. He gets caught in the Great Fire of 1666 where he is left to believe that all is lost. Fate, however, has other plans. Downey has pulled off the English accent very proficiently. He looks foppish in curls and his short trousers & pulled off the transformation in Merival's outlook with élan. It most certainly was a moving performance and strikes a chord within you. This was the time when Downey was in war with his own personal demons in substance abuse. He does not look healthy but, the role fits his worn-down appearance and brings to life Merivel. I can't imagine any other actor playing Merivel. The rest of the cast slid into their roles perfectly.

Europe of the 1600's has often been an overlooked era, sandwiched between the idealism and art of the Elizabethan/Shakespearean Age (late 1500s) and the Enlightenment of the 1700's. In many ways, 1600s England was a transitional time reflecting the growth of England toward a modern sensibility while still being hindered by the traditions and outlooks of the past, primarily the hold of Medieval thought which held to a strict hierarchical strata while discouraging and even destroying the pursuit of knowledge and truth.Robert Downey Jr. does a tremendous job as a character that appears to be a fore-runner of the coming Enlightenment. He is a physician on the verge of ground-breaking new scientific discoveries in the area of medicine. However, through a serendipitous and at first fortuitous run-in with King Charles II, the Restoration monarch (played brilliantly by Sam Neill), Downey loses his way and becomes a willing pawn in the king's sexual chess games. He even forsakes his precious medical texts to a colleague. In return, Downey gains a royal title, a royal tract of land, servants, and a wife. The only stipulation that is placed upon him: He cannot touch his own wife--she ultimately belongs to the King as one of his many mistresses.In this way, Charles II is still a monarch enacting a role that was first prescribed in the Middle Ages: that of the absolute ruler with absolute authority that can use his subjects for his own whims, and he can also discard those that are no longer useful. Simultaneously, there is another side to Charles II. Although he is the son of his late father Charles I, Charles II is the heir to Cromwell who devoted time and money to philanthropic projects, such as the study of science and medicine, the improvement of architecture, and the creation of schools. Charles II continues the enterprises begun by Cromwell and becomes a transitional monarch who has aspects that reflect both the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment.In many ways, Restoration is about these two worlds, and how Downey lives in both of them, from the luxurious life of a nobleman to the humble physician working with Quakers in an insane asylum. The king is also a person caught in both worlds. At first he appears the selfish ruler using his subjects as chess pieces in a large game in which he is always the bona fide winner. But then in another scene, we see him as a kind of philanthropic monarch financing and encouraging scientific and liberal research and discourse. In an interesting scene, Downey enters a kind of laboratory in which knowledge, research, and discovery are are being supported by the king who presides over the work of many scholars. Behind him is a strange swirling circus-like representation of the cosmos. We can't quite tell if the representation depicts the earth as the center of the Universe or the Sun, as if this notion is still being debated. But to his credit, the king is allowing for debate--something a Medieval king under a Medieval Church would have never allowed. Later, we learn that Downey is also an amateur astronomer, gazing at the stars in the heavens with a telescope.Through his adventures in and out of these worlds, Downey sees the light and dark of both and becomes something greater than he had before, particularly through an episode in which he falls in love with one of the patients (Meg Ryan) at the insane asylum. One aspect of the film that is quite revealing is the shades of color used to represent the different "worlds". The world of the king is bright and colorful. The world of the Quakers is far more gray, but toward the end of the movie, the world of the king becomes darker hued.In the end, even the King seems to understand the importance of scientific discourse and research--that these ideas could ultimately help not only his people but himself. Medieval monarchs played games with people's lives for their own selfish ends, and sometimes stifled those who could make positive contributions to their societies and even humanity at large. Restoration is about the transition from the Medieval model to a new societal design in which personal gain becomes an outcome of talent and contribution and not monarchical whim. Today, we are still challenged by the notion of privilege over substance. People in power still often give major opportunities to those they favor over those that could make important contributions who are less adept at playing the political game.

I thought this movie was a wonderful story. Meg Ryan plays a woman who lives in a mental institution and her acting is great, very convincing. Robert Downey Jr. is a doctor to a king, who marries Meg to save her, but begins to fall in love with her. The fact that their love story differs from most makes this movie even better. I laughed, I cried, I rejoiced along with the characters in the movie. But I will warn you of the nudity, Robert Downey Jr. and minor female characters are nude in certain parts of the movie. The costumes were fantastic and beautiful, as were the sets. I recommend this movie to all who are of age, because of the nudity younger people shouldn't see it unless they are quite mature.