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Charlatan Movie Review

Charlatan is a 2020 Czech biographical drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland and starring Ivan Trojan. The film is too messy, but undeniably fascinating.

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“This has no future.

We hide out like rats“

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It is about the life of a famous Czech healer who healed people traditionally with plant remedies. He eventually got arrested after two of his patients died. For the first half, the film is a standard biopic that is admittedly incredibly well edited and quite interesting, but nothing out of the ordinary. Eventually, the movie introduces an unexpected gay romance and that was the highlight for me.

Mikolasek is a very complex central figure. Although I personally found him to be quite unlikable, the movie’s choice to portray him that way was perhaps a sound one as it gave the film a more complicated protagonist and dynamic between the men. He is far from likable, but he is so interesting, there is no denying that.

Frantisek is much more sympathetic and a genuinely good person. The two start this sweeping, very cinematic romance that is also rooted in the unfair power play as one has more money and as a result he holds him in his crutches. Again, the protagonist is far from a great person, but that particular circumstance was very realistic, especially for this time period, and the resulting schism between the two was well handled.

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The movie’s best moments are all homoerotic in nature and also tender in romance. That lying in the field nude sequence was very cinematic and highly sensual while the sex scenes were also exceedingly well shot and memorable. This entire romance is so amazing, in fact, that the rest of the movie couldn’t quite compare to that level of greatness.

I personally hated the animal cruelty scenes in Charlatan. I found them not only horrible, but utterly unnecessary in the context of the overall story. And that is this film’s problem in a nutshell – too much goes on here, way too much. Agnieszka Holland put way too much stuff on her plate, and as a result she couldn’t quite deliver on all fronts. Most of it worked, but the movie also felt disjointed in certain areas and its ambition hurt it in the long run.

The cinematography is absolutely fantastic and many scenes here are stunning. The movie shifts focus from darker lit to very bright, very sun-drenched sequences and all are incredibly cinematic and superb. The direction is also good, but again she should have focused on less instead of more. The pacing felt problematic because of that high ambition and the movie never quite tackled all of its themes properly. Focus is the name of the game here and that was truly lacking. But the acting is great. Ivan Trojan is incredible in the main role and Juraj Loj is shot in such a way that he constantly has sex with the camera itself. The movie is surprisingly sensual throughout.

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