Suzie (Christina Ricci) runs into fellow showgirl Lola (Cate Blanchett) and the two room together, locking horns over Italian sensation Dante, the main draw at the theatre, who also happens to be a fascist. Lola gets her way and her man. Enter one very mysterious, brooding Gypsy horseman (Johnny Depp, reprising his role from Chocolat) who captures Suzie's heart. This entire whirlwind of music, passion and drama occurs on the eve of World War Two, and Suzie is in danger of being discovered as Jewish.

The cinematography is gorgeous, with washed-out colours in Russia, beautiful cityscapes of Paris (especially the bike/horse chase at night!), gaudily bright costumes and opera sets, the exotic colour, music and flair of the Gypsy camp and costumes. The colour brings to mind the brilliant Technicolour prints of the earlier days, with vibrant, surreal colours.

The soundtrack is equally stunning, with contributions by newcomer Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra, the Kronos Quartet, the Gypsy ensemble Taraf de Haidouks, and Czech songstress Iva Bittova providing the voice for Christina Ricci. The operatic selections by Bizet, Puccini, Purcell, and Verdi are balanced by original score (the stunning "Close Your Eyes" is the most beautiful song in the movie) and frantic Gypsy music. Bittova's "Gloomy Sunday" is a delightful study in atmosphere, and appropriately sets the tone for an onscreen event near the end of the film.

"The Man Who Cried" is an unusual, beautiful, and touching glimpse at a decadent Europe on the brink of war, the vibrant Gypsy culture, the Jewish shtetls of Russia, and the world of opera, all intertwined with romance and connections to the past.

80 of 85 found the following review helpful:

The waiter took my plate away...  Jun 02, 2002
By Spare-Time Critic "Deb"
...while I was still eating the main course! That's how I felt about this movie.

It's so beautiful, I WANTED to love it. I'm a Depp fan, and he and Ricci make a lovely couple. Cate Blanchett is looking her best, and the plot is interesting.

Fegele is a young Jewish woman who has been separated from her family as a child. Raised in England by distant foster parents, she longs to go to America to find her father, but has to earn enough money first. Along the way, she meets a smolderingly handsome gypsy (Depp), a kindhearted Russian gold-digger (Blanchett), and a very self-centered Italian opera singer (Turturro). Meanwhile, the Nazi menace is approaching, and it's no good time to be a Jew in Europe. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, you don't get a chance to really grab hold of this movie. Characters don't do much talking (well, except the opera singer, but who wants to hear him rant?). There's a lot of dialogue conducted via soulful looks and silent reproaches. All very nicely done, but it's up to you to figure out what characters are really thinking and feeling.

But here's thing that really bugged me: The ending. If you like to have the loose ends all tied up when the credits roll, you'll be disappointed. I felt the ending was rushed, and could've easily done with another 30 minutes or so. Instead, I was left wondering what would've happened next. If you don't mind that, rent the movie and enjoy it.

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Smoldering on Horseback  Apr 09, 2005
By Marie Moresero
This film is for those Johnny Depp fans who were not fans of his during his days as a young Tom Hanson in 21 JumpStreet. He plays a brooding, sexy gypsy, with little dialogue and big expressive eyes, who roughly takes Christina Ricci's virginity in a dirty, torn armchair after sending her smoldering looks from the back of his white stallion. His departure from the movie leaves a very anticlimactic feeling, as we continue to follow Ricci's character Susie after she has walked away from the feigning-sleep Depp character. Our last glimpse of Depp's character Cesar, opening his eyes at her departure, left me thinking that the film was over, as I stopped caring what happened to Susie, Lola( Cate Blanchett) and Dante (John Turturro), and focused on what I imagined his fate would be as a gypsy in Nazi-occupied Paris. This movie, writen and directed by Sally Potter, clearly exploits the fantasy of the sexuality of handsome gypsy men, and left me (a 40-something yr. old academic who should know better) daydreaming of Cesar and I riding off on his horse. The young girl who plays Ricci as a child, distanced from her father and torn from her whole world life, is very touching to watch, and I cried as she smashed photos in her new foreign home. My biggest complaint about this film is that while Depp can act just by blinking his eyes, Ricci's similar acting style did not seem as convincing to me, and I waited for her to show more expression in her huge, blank, puppy-dog eyes. She did not seem as convincing in her role as Depp, Blanchett and Turturro did in theirs, and I was painfully embarrassed at her singing, which was mentioned throughout the film as if it was spectacular (it most definitely was not)! This is a film that shows another side of Depp, and those who only think of him as Edward Scissorhands, Gilbert Grape, or Captain Jack Sparrow should watch this for his final scene with Ricci, where he speaks volumes by remaining silent, and left me sighing with longing for this wonderful character.

13 of 14 found the following review helpful:

A shadow of a movie  Oct 21, 2004
By fleur de lys

The #1 best thing about this movie is that Johnny Depp is in it. He has that transcendent, magical ability to give a performance that elevates any movie in which he appears. The #2 best thing is the attention lavished on production values particularly cinematography and art direction. Visually the film can be stunning; it has a romantic otherworldly aura. Now it is the story that doesn't quite work. Did this movie start out as one thing and evolve into something else? Is this a movie about people caught in cataclysmic circumstances beyond their control or the story of doomed lovers? I couldn't make up my mind. Neither one of these premises stands on its own and here woven together just doesn't quite hang.

It is disappointing that the characters are not fully realized and little more than stereotypes; the searching waif, the seductive gypsy, the blonde gold digger with a heart of gold, the temperamental, self-enamored opera star. The title itself though provocative seems an after- thought. Yes, Cesar the gypsy cries when he and Susie part under desperate circumstances, and his tears emphasize the poignancy of the separation, but this part of the scene seems tacked on, and gratuitous.

Which leads me into the main problem with this movie. Throughout it suffers from the palatable lack of chemistry between Johnny Depp and Cristina Ricci. There is just no heat between these two which makes the love story difficult to buy. (For doubters of this phenomenon I refer you to their pairing in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow").

The Man Who Cried is not an entire washout. The story has some sentimental charm and John Turturro and Cate Blanchett are always worth watching. And as for Johnny Depp...he's worth watching any old time.


9 of 9 found the following review helpful:

Really a 3 and a half star movie.  Apr 08, 2007
By egreetham
"The Man Who Cried" starts, literally, from a child's point of view, and even as it pulls back to follow her journey to young adulthood, it never loses the child's sense of life's mystery and enigma. The first few minutes of the movie establish, with very few words and notable compression, the central events, beginning in the late 1920s, of a little Russian Jewish girl's early life, her separation from her father (who emigrates to America) and the violent circumstances under which she leaves her home and arrives in England. The little girl who started life as Fegele finds herself with a new name, Suzie, in an alien world where the only familiar sight is the gypsies who pass by her school. This, a photograph of her father, and the memory of the songs he sang are all that is left to her of her old life. The desire to reach America to find her father never leaves her.

Suzie (played as an adult by Christina Ricci) matures into a pretty girl with a lovely voice who leaves England to become a showgirl in Paris, where she meets Lola (Cate Blanchett), a Russian emigree, Dante (John Turturro), an Italian tenor, and most important, Cesar (Johnny Depp), a Gypsy horseman whose center is as still as hers. The lives of these characters interweave as the Germans approach, then occupy Paris. Suzie must decide whether to use the ticket Lola has given her to reach America, or to stay in occupied Paris.

The first minutes of this film are as good as any I've ever seen. (Claudia Lander-Duke, who plays Fegele/Suzie as a child, is particularly moving.) Though I don't think the movie subsequently ever again quite equals these moments (or that the plot quite supports itself toward the end), the haunting, almost dreamlike, atmosphere created by the wonderful photography, and the central relationship of Suzie and Cesar make the film well worth watching.



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