For me, Casanova is a good movie. It is very well played, I could name David Tennant, Peter O'Toole, Laura Fraser and Rupert Penry-Jones, to name only the top four but all the actors are very good on their parts and the idea behind the plot is special.The idea is about the love of your life lost despite your will as a result of an unfortunate fate, love that you never forget and that you keep it inside you wherever you go. Casanova got imprisoned due to fake charges brought against him by the wealthy and powerful Grimani, love blinded and lost his lover Henriette in favor of the latter. Casanova escaped only to became an outcast. He will never see again the town of Venice in his life.Maybe Casanova is not a model of a good man as it is presented in the movie although he is a good man indeed. He did a lot of crazy things, he had an odd life but he is absolved because of his burden of the lost love for Henriette carried everywhere with him. We can suppose that a good part of his crazy acts are done in order to forget, to keep his mind and his heart busy. Casanova never gives up the hope to meet again Henriette, who also never stop loving him, to be sometime again with her. Although the destiny doesn't help him to regain her helps him in his very last moments to die happily with the thought that Henriette was going to him and with her name on his lips.Maybe the actual Casanova was not the idealist person from the film and maybe the movie doesn't observe rigorously the historical facts but the result is more than enchanting. Like in the Dumas's novels the result is far away better than the reality. The last but not the least I would like to note the music of the movie which is beautiful and fits perfectly the plot. Their dance from the final is memorable.

I turned on PBS last night and ran into this movie completely by accident. I was hooked immediately. It is so funny and unusual. The fact that everything happens to the young Casanova by chance is one of the things that makes it good. He is goofy, low-born, and self-effacing, as opposed to Heath Ledger's smug, overly confident Casanova in the film recently in theaters (which I found very boring.) This CASANOVA is definitely worth my time and yours. The supporting characters are enjoyable and the sets and costumes are amazing, full of color and authenticity. It was a spectacle for the ears and the eyes, I especially liked the colorfest during Casanova and Bellino's ball. Enjoy!

I'm absolutely dumbstruck by some of the reviews I've read here. The only explanation I can come up with is that most reviewers are unfamiliar with the historic Giacomo Casanova, and have never seen any of the vastly superior treatments of his story (such as "La Nuit de Varennes"). One of the reviewers even describes it as being about a man from the "17th century". Off by a hundred years, I'm afraid, which is roughly as far off as this movie is from either a well-done biographical film or a historically-accurate one. No, it's Hollywood (or rather, the British approximation of it) through and through.This version is, in reality, a "Casanova" for the "Sex and the City" and "Men Behaving Badly" crowd; all winks and nudges and brash cheekiness. David Tenant is amusing, but absolutely lacking in charisma or depth, much less skill. In fact, he bears an uncanny resemblance to the bumbling characters that Eric Idle used to play. Peter O'Toole does an over-the-top caricature of himself; a role he seems to have been relegated to for the past 25 years. Sad, really. The rest of the cast seems to have been assembled from whoever was hanging around the studio that day, as they obviously weren't chosen for their verisimilitude or subtlety.But the story is far the worst thing about this flick. The dialog is farcical, the plot is boilerplate, there are countless historical mistakes. For example, Casanova fires a pistol into the air to threaten a group of men, and says he'll shoot them next. Problem is, all pistols were single-shot for another hundred years; it would've actually taken him another 2 minutes to reload another shot; any man of the time would've known that! They also dance the waltz; something that didn't appear in Venice for another 50 years. I was surprised to not see Casanova riding a motorcycle while chatting on his mobile phone."Casanova" isn't above trying to titillate by teasing us with an "is she/isn't she" shtick about a mulatto castrato that Casanova "falls in love with". But of course, after playing around with the faux-mosexual aspect, surprise! -it's a girl after all, so the audience can all heave a sigh of relief at Casanova's good fortune. But the real Casanova was well-known to be bisexual (look it up on Wikipedia), although actually having the nerve to show that here seems to be beyond the film-maker's integrity, the audience's stomach, or (most likely) both.The dialog swings between maudlin (when Casanova offers to rescue his prison cell-mate, he responds "but I can't leave; this is my home!") and stand-up comedy, as when Casanova makes his confession and rattles off a laundry list of the women he's slept with ("two sisters, at the same time. Many times. But at least I didn't sleep with their mother. Although I've done that. Many times. So sorry.") And I mustn't forget to mention that the sappy string synthesizers in the incidental music would be right at home in a third-rate soap opera. It's sad to see "Casanova" dumbed down this far. It's sadder still to see it overpraised by people who don't know the historic and literary Giacomo Casanova from Nathan Barley.

This is costume drama at its unique best. Definitely displaying Tennants best work, Casanova is a hugely entertaining romp with plenty of action both in and out of the bedroom, along with lots of humour and heartbreaking romance. I admit I was devastated by the ending (you'll have to watch to see what I mean) The costumes and sets are wickedly done, the acting is first rate. There are moments people will find disturbing and scenes you wouldn't watch with your granny, but its still just in good fun. You are guaranteed to fall head over heels for Tennants Casanova who's character literally sweeps you off your feet within the first ten seconds of watching with his wit and charm. This is a great recommendation for romance lovers anywhere, but some moments in it are a little bit laddy!!!