A Mess

This was a critical and commercial flop and its not hard to see why. It just doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Though it tries mightily to wear a number of different coats, it just ends up tripping over its own coat tails and ultimately looks a bit silly.

It could have been a comical buddy movie involving Dumas and his ghost writer Auguste Maquet, but it's really not that amusing. It tries to be a sort of historical rom-com with Maquet and Charlotte, but like Maquet's romantic pretentions, that never really gets to first base and is quite insipid. There's a convoluted dramatic attempt to link the break - up of the Maquet - Dumas work relationship with the 1848 Revolution, which is totally underwhelming and ignores the fact that they worked together for a few years after the revolution.

All in all, one to miss IMO.🐭