The Libertine

The Libertine (2004) is a period drama starring Johnny Depp that you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Laurence Dunmore, it tells the story of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, a brilliant poet who drank and provoked his way toward an early grave in the court of Charles II.

Rochester opens the film by warning you straight to camera that you will not like him, and he means it. Gifted and impossible, he scribbles savage verse, ruins his health, and squanders his talent on scandal. The king, played by John Malkovich under heavy prosthetics, still hopes to tame him and commissions a play, only for Rochester to turn it into an obscene insult aimed at the throne. Meanwhile he falls for stage actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton) and sets out to make her a star, even as his wife (Rosamund Pike) and his body fall apart around him.

Depp doesn't play a charming rogue here. He plays a man methodically destroying himself, and it stands among his darkest performances. Shot in the cold, almost rotting tones of Restoration England, with none of the usual costume-drama gloss. Not for everyone, but those who accept its terms get a genuinely punishing tragedy. Stream The Libertine (2004) online on iFILM.