CHARLIE CHAPLIN

The life of a great filmmaker and lousy human being.

Ackroyd (Three Brothers, 2014, etc.) delivers a thorough if ultimately unsatisfying portrait of Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) in this dispiriting chronicle of an artistic genius and thoroughly unpleasant man. The author’s account of Chaplin’s difficult early life in the slums of London is evocative and moving, detailing the many deprivations suffered by the young Charlie, which included chronic malnutrition and stints in workhouses; more troubling still was the condition of his mother, a failed singer whose devolution into madness ensured a lifelong lack of emotional stability for her gifted son. Surprisingly, the narrative becomes less interesting as Chaplin achieves success and renown, as his background in mime, dance and acrobatic clowning coincided with the nascent demands of early film comedy. Chaplin’s physical gifts and iconic visual presence as his signature “Little Tramp” character quickly established him as Hollywood’s biggest attraction, and his subsequent total control over his projects resulted in phenomenally successful movies (including City Lights, Modern Times and The Great Dictator) that made him the most famous man in the world. Ackroyd’s analysis of Chaplin’s evolving screen persona and obsessive attention to details provides some intriguing insights into his many classic works, but the author neglects to place these films in a wider context. The man himself emerges as a bitter, hateful presence: cruel, sadistic, bullying, a sexual predator fixated on very young teenage girls and monomaniacal to the point of monstrosity. Readers are left with an understanding of Chaplin’s background, the biographical details of his long and troubled life, and some idea of the hellish conditions on the exacting filmmaker’s sets, but conclusions about his significance as an artist, his work’s relationship to the culture at large, and the internal forces that engendered such personal misery and creative transcendence fail to cohere.

A comprehensive look at Chaplin the man but lacking as a portrait of the artist and his legacy.