Charlie Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) is recalling memories for his autobiography writer George Hayden (Anthony Hopkins). As a child in England, Chaplin witnesses his mother Hannah Chaplin (Geraldine Chaplin) chased off the stage by a crowd and he immediately takes over to be a big hit. The cops take him and his brother Syd (Paul Rhys) for the workhouse. His mother goes mad and he puts her in the sanitarium. He gets hired by music hall producer Fred Karno (John Thaw). He falls for fellow performer Hetty Kelly (Moira Kelly). Producer Mack Sennett (Dan Aykroyd) hires him for the new flickers. Hetty gets married and Charlie meets secretary Edna Purviance (Penelope Ann Miller) who he turns into his actress. He befriends Douglas Fairbanks (Kevin Kline) and marries 16 year old child actress Mildred Harris (Milla Jovovich) after she lies about being pregnant. He angers J. Edgar Hoover (Kevin Dunn) before he becomes the head of the FBI. He divorces Mildred and marries Lita Grey whom he hates. Then he marries Paulette Levy (Diane Lane) whom he loves. Joan Barry (Nancy Travis) has boobs and sues him falsely successfully for paternity. He marries Oona O'Neill (Moira Kelly again). He is accused of being a communist.

Richard Attenborough is trying to stuff so much of a big life into one movie. Sometimes things feel skipped over or given a limited treatment. Characters come in and out like a rotating door. The production value is sufficiently high but there isn't enough time to get it all in. The real story is understandably simplified and Attenborough tries to give it a surreal connected treatment... sometimes. There is no doubt that Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job especially with the physical comedy. His performance is better than the film as a whole.

This film is beautiful and intelligent, if a little ambitious and overlong (2 and a quarter hours). But it is so worth seeing, for the superb Oscar-nominated performance from Robert Downey Junior. The film starts off flawlessly, with beautiful incidental music from John Barry, and a fantastic performance from Geraldine Chaplin, who played her own grandmother.

We also see Fred Karno, robustly played by John Thaw, and Hetty , played by Moira Kelly(who did struggle with the accent). A standout from the supporting cast, was a lively performance from Kevin Kline, who brought some great energy into the role of Douglas Fairbanks. The performances in general are very good indeed, and the film looks ravishing with show stopping costumes and scenery.

However, it is after the death of Fairbanks, that the film starts to drag, and the title characters rapidly turn into a series of vignettes. As much a great actor Anthony Hopkins is, his turn as the fictional autobiographer was perhaps unnecessary. And I was a bit confused why they turned Hoover as a villain who wanted Chaplin out of the country. The ending is poignant, and Moira Kelly does better in her role as Oona.

The end credits were very educational, and the arrangement of Smile was one of my highlights of this beautifully made but ambitious film. Worth watching for those who are a fan of Richard Attenborough (the director) 8/10 Bethany cox

In a career beset by a whole lot of personal problems, Robert Downey, Jr. reached his career high with his Oscar nominated biographical portrayal of Charlie Chaplin. In areas that are not equally covered, Chaplin is given a thorough portrayal as we glimpse his art, his politics and what was a stormy personal life.

Born into incredible poverty in one of the poorest sections of London, Charlie grew out of the poverty as did so many others through the medium of entertainment. He perfected a whole slew of characters while in vaudeville here and the Music Hall in Great Britain and made a fateful decision to try that new medium of motion pictures. When he invented his Little Tramp character the world was his.

Chaplin was a multi-faceted show business entity. He was a genius both in front and behind the camera, knowing his tramp character better than anyone. He also was a wonderful composer such standards as Smile and This Is My Song are his, both music and lyrics. And in founding United Artist Motion Pictures with fellow mega silent superstars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford he became a movie mogul as well, one of the first film stars to get into the production end where the big money was.

His left wing politics made many fear him as his mastery of the communication aspect of film led some to believe he would use it for subversive ends. I have no doubt that J. Edgar Hoover thought that, but Hoover thought that about many. Contrary to the film's plot, Hoover was not Chaplin's number one enemy.

In fact Hoover gets barely a mention in Chaplin's autobiography. The one who really had it in for him was gossip columnist Hedda Hopper who was the self appointed keeper of Hollywood morals. Hedda's politics were right wing Republican. It was she to whom Joan Barry played here by Nancy Travis came and it was Hedda Hopper who kept the lurid details of the Barry pregnancy in the headlines with the result of Chaplin being arrested for rape. Eventually it was Hopper who had a lot more to do with Charlie Chaplin being deported than Hoover ever did. Yet Hopper is not even a character here.

Don't read Chaplin's memoirs, read her's. To her dying day Hedda Hopper made reading Chaplin out of the film community her crusade just as her fellow gossip columnist Louella Parsons had Orson Welles as her target. Both Chaplin and Welles have better reputations today than the women who journalisticly tormented them.

Director Richard Attenborough did not let Downey's performance overwhelm the rest of the cast. Pay note to people like Dan Aykroyd as Mack Sennett, Diane Lane as Paulette Goddard, and Geraldine Chaplin playing her own grandmother, Charlie's mother. And special mention must go to Kevin Kline playing Douglas Fairbanks. Kline plays the aging swashbuckling superstar as a middle aged man with a variety of health problems who was Chaplin's one really true friend.

Downey lost to Al Pacino who was finally given an overdue Oscar for Scent Of A Woman. Chaplin also received nominations for Best Art&Set Direction and Best Musical Score.

Still Chaplin remains Downey's personal best and if not a totally accurate film about the Little Tramp, one I'm sure he would have approved.