After watching this film, I felt my faith in humanity had been (somewhat) restored, and not for the squishy, feel-good reasons either. Instead, I felt that filmmakers can often demonstrate truly wondrous, creative talents; Try not to think of all those sumptuous 18th Century European paintings that feature either the rich or the starving, while taking in the cinematic beauty of Hoffman's 'Restoration.'

So what if Meg Ryan has a role in this one, I still enjoyed it. This film is not about her anyway (the film is told from an exclusively patriarchal viewpoint, and doesn't sink into syrupy romance... at least not the way I saw it).

Eugenio Zannetti (I'm not entirely sure about the spelling, but he is a production designer of infinite wisdom and talent) created endless aristocratic hallways, gorgeous rooms, and locations of richness and pestilence that exist side-by-side. Zannetti went on to 'architecturally' design the central, Rococo menace in "The Haunting" (1999).

Downey Jr's performance (as a doctor) is Raphaelesque, a walking representation of the period in which this story takes place (the anguish and hope he must undergo and have is thespian splendor). Ian McKellan also appears (need I say more) here as a disheveled, yet benevolent supporting hero.

I strongly recommend you experience this 'restorative' piece of cinematic art.

When this movie came out, the movie critics all jumped on and called it a failure. They said it was a hugely disappointing role for Robert Downey, Jr. Although, this movie was not superb, it was at least decent. That's why I never listen to critics. Downey plays an idealistic young surgeon with great promise. Chance has it that King Charles The Second discovers the young surgeon. If he promises not to sleep with the king's mistress, he will marry her and maintain an estate. Downey's Sir Robert is, of course, a man who chases after women, and when he falls in love with her, a spy (played by Hugh Grant) discovers it, reports it to the king, and Sir Robert is banished. Sir Robert finds favor again by devoting himself to treating the victims of the plague of 1660. What I liked about the movie, is that it showed that 1660 was the beginning of the transition to the modern World. Superstitions were falling, and surgeons like Sir Robert were starting to be seen as an asset. The King was even getting into science and medicine. Robert Downey, Jr. also does an excellent job. So, why all the bad reviews?

Sometimes as stunning as a museum visit, often turn away ugly, and filled with starts and stops that would be more potent as a limited series, where detail could have been greater. A lot is covered in two hours in this brutal look at an ugly time in the many chapters of world history. This takes place during the reign of the great restoration king Charles II of England and Great Britain, a ruler whose life had been part of "Forever Amber" and later the lengthy cable continuing series "The Stuarts", a major part of the often filmed "Nell Gwynn", and as notorious a ladies man as his distant cousin of a century before, Henry VIII. Sam Neill looks the part in the most commanding if ways, subtle in his nobility, yet flamboyant in his excesses.

The era was a great time of change in England, and this story focuses on one particularly complex man. Robert Downey Jr. proves once again his great versatility as a great doctor, hired for the king's court, who looses his gift for medicine from an unrequited love for Polly Walker, part of an arranged marriage set up by the king. Downey is dismissed, goes off to treat those suffering from a plague, falls in love once more (with peasant girl Meg Ryan) and proves his strength as a doctor, even under the most tragic circumstances of his own life.

There are moments when I had to turn my head, particularly a scene at the beginning involving a patient of Downey's whose chest cavity is open, exposing his innards as he stands erect. The plague scenes are realistically gruesome, with no hiding of the ugliness of that era. Charles' court is lavish, almost operatic in its sets, and the music is gloriously profound. Still, there's a missing element that makes it stand out as terrific, although it's a marvelously good try.