Johnny Depp

The good and bad news of Secret Window is that Johnny Depp provides a rounded character that won't fit into the square peg of writer-director David Koepp's workmanlike adaptation of a gripping Stephen King novella (Secret Window, Secret Garden). With a shadow in his eye, a quaver in his voice and odd mute poppings of his mouth, Depp evokes fuzzy layers of private emotion. He brings audiences close to him the way some leaders rally their troops -- with whispers instead of shouts. He has the gift that Marcello Mastroianni had of seeming to comment on a movie's narrative without stepping outside his role.

Discovered and submitted for your pleasure: A curious tale from the historically seismic year of 1861 — you might say "Pirates of the Caribbean" transported to the Civil War and the Chesapeake Bay. If the Coen brothers turn down the opportunity to turn this into a movie starring Johnny Depp, someone else should grab it. This is a story for the big screen: a 150-year-old true yarn about a flamboyant lad from Southern Maryland who dressed like a...

LOS ANGELES - Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for the negotiations between Johnny Depp and Disney over his portrayal of Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Depp plays the pirate antihero with a staggering, sashaying gait to reflect a lifetime at sea. His speech drips with too many days in the sun and too much rum. He has gold teeth (Depp had to get rid of a few as part of a compromise), and he braids his beard into two strands. Depp says he told the Mouse Factory brass to let him do what he was hired to do. "I'm a sucker for my own brain," Depp says during a recent interview at the St. Regis Hotel.

When he takes on a role, Johnny Depp often paints a watercolor portrait of the still-forming character to help find his face and personality. After putting the finishing touches on his painting for "Alice in Wonderland," Depp looked down at the Mad Hatter staring back at him from the canvas and giggled. "I was thinking," the actor said, " 'Oh, my God, this one will get me fired!' " It's hard to imagine any pink slips in the future for Depp, who, it could be argued, reigns as the biggest movie star in the world at the moment.

"Killin's, burnin's, lootin's, but larceny above all else." -- Capt. Ned Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard (Blackbeard the Pirate, 1952) TAKE AWAY THE MURDERIN', the thievin' and the keelhaulin', and you might call Capt. Fletcher T. Moone a modern-day Ned Teach. It was 21 years ago this summer that Moone -- by day, a Kensington finance specialist named Brad Howard -- gathered a passel o' mates, formed a maritime music combo called the Pyrates Royale, and started playin' private parties all around the Chesapeake.

A lot of fascinating stuff must have happened in gates one through eight, because there sure isn't much left to tell in nine. "The Ninth Gate" is a film that really has no idea what it wants to be, so it tries a little of everything, and does nothing very well. It's a horror movie about the devil where the only horrifying thing is realizing how much time you've invested. It's a black comedy where none of the actors seem in on the joke. It's a film about the world of rare books where a supposed "expert" treats a priceless 17th-century volume with the sort of care usually reserved for that second-hand Stephen King paperback you picked up from Goodwill.

Arghh! mateys, and all that ... here's a pirate movie that knows how to swash its buckle. Based on a Disneyland ride, of all things, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is just a little editing short of great; a little paring would have made this film a joyride from beginning to end. There are wonderful characters who embrace their stereotypes (yes, the pirates do say `Arghh!' - a lot) even while creating new ones, a plucky heroine as resourceful as she is beautiful, humor that enhances rather than supplants the plot, ships so picturesquely seaworthy one can almost smell the brine, and a supernatural element that suggests classic movie fantasy didn't retire from the screen with Ray Harryhausen (no disrespect to Star Wars, but I miss Jason and the Argonauts)

As the eccentric Edwardian playwright J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland, Johnny Depp gives a subtle, uncanny and, by the end, convulsively moving performance. With a lilting Scottish burr and an unflappable confidence in whimsy, he makes an honest tearjerker out of what could have been the palest ode to imagination. In the movie's fictionalized version of Barrie's life, the writer befriends the widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her brood of sons at a time when his creativity has dried up and his marriage to a fetching, society-minded former actress, Mary Ansell (Rhada Mitchell)

Did you hear the one about the middle-aged writer guy who walks into his newsroom after the Oscar nominations are announced? He's assigned to write about one of the leading actors in question. He's you, his editor says. Of course he is, writer guy says, knowing his barely perceptible Johnny Depp-ish-ness has always made an impression in the newsroom among, you know, the ladies. "Paul Giamatti," his editor corrects. Paul Giamatti? You mean, Pig Vomit? Giamatti, as most people know by now, plays the shlubby-looking, thin-skinned, temperamental, self-pitying guy who bounces off the walls of life in Sideways -- forever searching for identity, love, and a really good Pinot Noir.

After playing a pirate captain in the Caribbean and a blinded, pistol-wielding rogue CIA agent in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Johnny Depp takes a quieter turn in his next film, Secret Window, written and directed by Panic Room screenwriter David Koepp based on the Stephen King novella, "Secret Window, Secret Garden." In many ways it's a one-actor story, primarily concentrated on an isolated writer with a little too much time on his hands. In the film, which opens tomorrow, Depp plays successful writer Mort Rainey, who secludes himself in an isolated cabin by a lake after he discovers that his wife (Maria Bello)

Precious . . (4 STARS) The biggest surprise of 2009 was this electrically compassionate look at an abused young woman (Gabourey Sidibe) and her escape from the control of a horrifying mother (Mo'Nique). These two create an extraordinary dance of simmering rebellion and sadistic manipulation. But the whole ensemble is aces, including Mariah Carrey as a responsible, no-nonsense social worker and Paula Patton as a dedicated teacher. Under Lee Daniels' direction, you can't look away for a nanosecond.

Public Enemies *** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS ) Public Enemies provides a welcome shock to the system. This tough-minded, visually electric movie about Depression bank robber John Dillinger ( Johnny Depp) takes audiences into the center of the action in its opening minutes. It keeps them there as it expands into a bristling chronicle of a country in flux. Depp goes all the way with the role of a wry, wily Midwesterner. He really nails this character - the scion of an age of speed who says he wants "everything" and wants it "right now."

Public Enemies provides a welcome shock to the system. This tough-minded, visually electric movie about Great Depression bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) takes audiences into the center of the action in its opening minutes. It keeps them there as it expands into a bristling chronicle of a country in flux. Without ever telling viewers what to think or how to feel, it raises more questions about the corruption of crime and crime fighting than any expose or thesis. And if it sometimes registers too coolly, by the end it rouses more bruised feelings than any four-hankie weepie.

It's silly statuette time once again, and chances are that Sweeney Todd, which picked up a recent Golden Globe award for best film musical, will be heavily nominated for the Academy Awards. While I applaud director Tim Burton for having come up with a fresh approach, I question the wisdom of stripping Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical masterpiece of elements that audiences have relished for nearly three decades. The music, the scathingly witty dialogue - in the film, it all takes a back seat to the Grand Guignol-style plot.

Had a fab chat recently with Nancy Reagan, my own personal favorite first lady of the many I have known. The most "real," the most "human" of them all, with no political agenda, she was in town for the fundraiser Mayor Mike Bloomberg tossed for the Reagan Library at his eastside townhouse last week. The last time I'd seen Mrs. Reagan was at her husband's funeral in Washington and then my heart ached for her. She was grieving, exhausted and seemed very frail. But now she has bounced back.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End proves to be a box-office hit. What, in your opinion, makes this movie so spellbinding, particulary since it is about three hours long? WHAT YOU SAY Time has no meaning for these films. The special effects, the story lines, the characters and, of course, Johnny Depp spellbind you until the end of the feature. As far as the time goes, I could have sat there for two more hours. The movies go so fast you don't realize the time. Kathy Riley, Baltimore I love Johnny Depp.

* ''Edward Sissorhands'' A fairy tale about a young man whose creator, a mad inventor, never got around to giving him human hands. Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Dianne Wiest star.* ''Havana'' Robert Redford is a gambler who becomes involved with the wife of a Cuban revolutionary. Lena Olin co-stars.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a movie made at wits' end. There are four or five authentic laughs in the whole 170-minute extravaganza. Here's what reviewers are not supposed to give away: How and why Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), a new Chinese pirate from Singapore, Sao Feng (Chow-Yun Fat), Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and trade magnate Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) betray each other.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a movie made at wits' end. There are four or five authentic laughs in the whole 170-minute extravaganza. Here's what reviewers are not supposed to give away: How and why Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), a new Chinese pirate from Singapore, Sao Feng (Chow-Yun Fat), Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and trade magnate Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) betray each other.