Just a sexy scamp

Can feminists embrace sensuality without getting screwed? Can libertarians ever make peace with God?

Such questions might have proved relevant in a film about the promiscuous real-life heretic Giaccomo Casanova. They have no place in a period piece that thinks giving its 18th-century hero tinted sunglasses will make him more fun.

Oscar nominee and man-of-the-moment Heath Ledger plays the legendary Venetian, characterised here as a sexy scamp. He's on the run from poker-up-the-bum officers of the law (namely a bishop from Rome, played by Jeremy Irons).

Along the way his attention is caught by an anti-chauvinist maiden, Francesca (Sienna Miller), whose feistiness means we get to see her in boyish jerkins as well as chest-squeezing frocks. Pirates of the Caribbean employed many of the same stock types. That film had a trashy insouciance, however. This one is just a mess.

Poor Ledger, usually so spry, all but cringes as he delivers the wannabe post-modern lines. Nor do his genitals seem particularly aflame. The script has him draped in women but there's only one scene (involving oral sex, a table and a pig) that gives off anything like heat.

His co-star seems equally uncomfortable. For once playing a bright brunette, Miller looks in permanent fear of being unmasked as a dumb blonde.

Things take a bizarre turn when Francesca's bulky fiancé Paprizzio (Oliver Platt) comes to town and is tricked by Casanova (who by now realises he's in love with the firebrand and wants to see off the competition) into a "make-over" involving ropes and green goo.

It seems we're in for a horribly sadistic, Twelfth Night-meets-Se7en punishment. Instead, in a genuinely charming twist, Paprizzio finds true romance and gets to keep his love handles.

This plot strand suggests director Lasse Hallström was awake during the proceedings. Casanova ends the movie determined to shake off his reputation. Strange to think that the 60-year-old Swede once had a bit of a reputation himself. Rumour has it, he used to make decent films.

Casanova
Cert: 12A