The Burnt Orange Heresy Parent Guide

James Figueras (Claes Bang) is an art critic who makes a living giving lectures to American tourists in Italy and writing books about painters. Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger), on the other hand, is a fabulously wealthy art dealer who needs a job done, and turns to James to do it. Living on Cassidy’s property is a famously reclusive artist, Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland), who is fiercely protective of his work. Cassidy enlists James to procure one of Debney’s paintings at any cost. Unfortunately for James, his date Berenice (Elizabeth Debicki) has a few more morals than he does…

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: It’s not every movie that can get a straight D in every category. Looking at the content, you could understandably expect an orgy of sex, violence, drug use, and profanity. But the content is surprisingly compartmentalized. If, for example, you arrived around 15 minutes late to the movie, you would miss all of the sexual content. Swearing is much less frequent than in most other movies, and the violence encompasses all of two minutes of the run time. Compare that to something much more innocuous, like Jumanji: The Next Level, which scored a “B” for violence. That violence, while less extreme, occupied a much greater portion of the movie. I’m not saying that the violence in this is insignificant, but it is about as brief as it can be to earn the grade it has.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the artistic merits of the movie. There aren’t many. It’s a fairly ponderous and self-absorbed affair, although it does have the courtesy to be brief. Despite that, it is well cast and well shot. Mick Jagger is clearly having far too much fun as the devilish and charming art dealer, and Donald Sutherland positively oozes genuine charm and affection right off the screen. That sounds a lot grosser than it is, but it really is a pleasure to watch him. Elizabeth Debicki has an excellent American accent (she is originally Australian) and adds a level of personal appeal that would otherwise be lacking in most of her scenes.

This isn’t a film I can easily recommend, since the content is far too intense for many viewers, and the story isn’t compelling enough for those who would tolerate it. Good performances aside, there isn’t all that much to keep an audience there. Not enough thriller to be gripping, not enough drama to be thought provoking, and not nearly heretical enough to be a really good time with Mr. “Sympathy for the Devil” himself, Sir Mick Jagger.