Restoration (1995)

Restoration (1995)

 Merivel: You cannot banish joy, for that is the road to madness.


Restoration, like The Last King, is set in the time of King Charles II of England.  The main character is a fictional doctor named Robert Merivel (Robert Downey Jr.).  He is a young, talented physician, but finds his work dark and depressing: "I do what I can to treat them, but our sciences gives us no hope of curing most of them, and I am frustrated!"

King Charles II and Merivel

He is thrilled when he gets the opportunity to go to court and serve Charles II, where he tends the royal dogs, wears fancy clothes, and womanizes to his heart's content, to the dismay of his friend John Pearce, who laments the waste of Merivel's skills:

Pearce:  When you stood in this room and put your hand around that man's heart -something I did not dare do that date -your vital flame was burning.  Now, you see, the light has gone out of your eyes.
Merivel: No, my study of medicine has given me nothing but a perpetual and visable awareness of mortaility; that were I continue it would very shortly bring me despair...
Pearce: You have a gift for healing, Merivel.
Merivel: I do not!
Pearce: Yes.  Oh, yes, you do.  For understanding sickness.
Merivel: Death is a terrible thing, Pearce.  I need color and light, not darkness and death.  I feel I've had quite enough of dark things.  I want bright things and decorative things.  I am, after all, a creature of the new age.

The King's mistress, Lady Castlemaine (never seen), is jealous of another of his mistresses, Lady Celia (fictional).  So Lady Celia is married off to Merivel to appease Lady Castlemaine -with the strict understanding that the marriage will be in name only, as she is to remain the King's mistress.  In exchange, Merivel is given a knighthood and his own estate.

Polly Walker as Lady Celia.

Supporting actors include Ian McKellen as Merivel's loyal servant Will Gates, Hugh Grant as a foppish artist, and Sam Neill as Charles II.

Naturally, Merivel falls in love with Lady Celia against the King's orders, and loses all that he is gained.  "Love was the only thing not asked of you.  Indeed it was the only thing expressly forbidden of you," the King tells him.  Merivel tries to protest that he can't go back to being a doctor, to no avail:

Katharine.

Merivel: Your Majesty, you took me from the Royal College, gave me your dogs to look after, liked me for my foolishness.
Charles II: No, Merivel.  I liked you for your skill.

Turning to his old friend Pearce and Pearce's fellow Quakers for help, he begins to work at their hospital for the mentally ill as he gets back on his feet.  There he meets a damaged woman (Meg Ryan) named Katharine, and rediscovers his talent for healing.



Merivel goes through a lot of big changes as his world evolves around him -court life, poverty, wealth, the Plague, the Great Fire, love, loss.  As I've said before, I like movies where characters go through transformations, and Merivel did, from court fool to selfless doctor, so I enjoyed it.  It was also quite funny.  Tyler watched the last half with me, and thought it was good -he compared it favorably to Tom Jones.