When Lord Richard Attenborough announced in the late 1980s his intention to make a biopic about Charlie Chaplin, the enterprise smacked of Oscar bait. Attenborough's bloated prestige production, Gandhi, had nabbed the 1982 Academy Award for best picture, and Chaplin's tumultuous life, peppered with scandals of sex and politics, was the stuff of epic storytelling. If Chaplin as subject matter wasn't quite in the same league as Mahatma Gandhi, it still sounded like a good bet to woo Academy voters who like things that are supposed to be good for them.

Chaplin, it turned out, proved to be something of a commercial and critical disappointment. Revisiting the picture in this 15th anniversary edition DVD, however, the drubbing seems unwarranted. While Chaplin is prone to some of the ponderousness that bogs down so many high-minded biopics, it remains a quasi-treat for movie buffs who are likely to eat up the back stories surrounding one of Hollywood's most enduring legends. And it didn't hurt any that Robert Downey Jr. gave a blockbuster performance as the Little Tramp.

You certainly can't say the movie lacks ambition. Based on David Robinson's biography, "Chaplin: His Life and Art," as well as the silent-film star's autobiography, Chaplin drifts from the man's impoverished London childhood to his earning an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1972. Along the way, the picture depicts it all, particularly his comic genius, his leftwing politics and predilection for underage women.

It's a sizable narrative undertaking fraught with stumbles. Even with a generous running time of two hours and 20 minutes, Chaplin often feels as if too many events have been shoehorned in place. To help ease things, the trio of screenwriters (William Boyd, Bryan Forbes and William Goldman) employs a somewhat clumsy framing device, having an elderly Chaplin narrate his tale to a fictitious biographer (Anthony Hopkins) at the actor's Swiss mansion in 1963. The gimmick lets the filmmakers spoon-feed dribbles of information in rather clunky ways.

The flick's expansive canvas also comes at the expense of emotional resonance. As Chaplin's biographer, Hopkins urges his subject, "You shouldn't be afraid to let the readers share your emotions, your feelings" -- but the same advice could be said of Chaplin the movie. The surfeit of plot isn't a fatal flaw, by any stretch, but it compromises the poignancy of some story threads, such as Charlie's mentally ill mother (Geraldine Chaplin) and his ill-fated romance with Paulette Goddard (Diane Lane). Attenborough concedes the problems in one of the DVD's accompanying featurettes, adding, "It certainly was not as profound a film as it might have been."

Still, if Chaplin is too big and unwieldy for its own good, it is also never less than watchable. Attenborough gussies up the proceedings with the trappings of old-school cinema, including wipes and irising, with ace cinematographer Sven Nykvist providing some sumptuous visuals. And there are inspired flashes throughout.

Much of that inspiration can be attributed to Downey, who rightly earned an Oscar nomination for his riveting performance. Playing a bona fide icon is no easy task, but the actor captures Chaplin's nimble gifts for physical comedy without resorting to impersonation. He also deftly conveys Charlie Chaplin's fascinating blend of social consciousness and callowness. Chaplin's real-life daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, marveled at Downey's portrayal shortly after the film's release. "I think Daddy took a trip down here and got inside him," she told a TV interviewer.

The cast is sprawling and mostly very good. In a nifty bit of stunt casting, Geraldine Chaplin plays Charlie's mother (and her own grandmother), Hannah. Kevin Kline shines as Douglas Fairbanks, while Lane, Moira Kelly, Milla Jovovich, Penelope Ann Miller and Nancy Travis round things out as Chaplin's various love interests. A little tramp, indeed.

Presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1, the picture quality is decent but otherwise unremarkable. Colors and details are strong, but several scenes belie slight grain and noise.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 mix is a bit of a disappointment. Audio is serviceable but flat, and there is some inconsistency in volume. Optional subtitles are in Spanish and English for the hearing-impaired.

Some good stuff is here. Strolling into the Sunset (7:20) collects interviews with Attenborough, critic Richard Schickel and others for a retrospective that is surprisingly honest about the film's deficiencies. The six-minute, six-second Chaplin: The Hero (6:06) weaves together interviews and film clips to highlight the filmmaker's genius, while The Most Famous Man in the World (5:27) illustrates the extent of his international celebrity.

Also worth watching is All at Sea: Chaplin Home Movie. Clocking in just shy of three minutes, it is 16mm silent footage of a 1933 boat trip in which Chaplin, Goddard and a young Alistaire Cooke clown around. A theatrical trailer is also included.

As overstuffed biopics go, you could do better than Chaplin, but you could do a lot worse, too. Robert Downey Jr. gives a memorable performance that helps compensate for a movie that is too ambitious for its own good.