All the nuances Robert Downey Jr. invests in playing Charlie Chaplin, the clown prince of the silent screen, are blunted by a skim job of a script and inert direction from that Madame Tussaud of film biographers, Richard Attenborough (Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Young Winston). The film follows Chaplin from his impoverished London youth through his Hollywood triumphs, his exile from the United States and his return in 1972 for what this film considers the ultimate accolade -- an honorary Oscar.

The star…