Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Rupert Everett
Have I Seen it Before: Nope. It took a devil of an effort to sneak away for a few hours to see it.
Did I Like It: I really wish I did. There’s plenty to like. Phoenix once again fully commits to the role at hand, so much so that if we got anything less from him, we would be gravely disappointed. The scope and scale of the movie is pristine, but then again anything less and we would be gravely disappointed in Ridley Scott. Although, to be fair, I don’t think we’re likely to see another film with special effects so pointedly wielded toward the end of showing the most vivid horse murders that American Humane is likely to allow.
One flaw persisted throughout the film, although it might be a little unfair to judge the film by a flaw to which so many films of the genre also fall. All of the characters speak English, even though they clearly spoke French in reality*. That’s a phenomenon I can usually get used to. I had no problem with it in movies like The Mask of Zorro (1998). But here I’m taken out of the proceedings every moment we linger on a document like an annulment or abdication and even it is written in English. It’s bad when Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) offers a more accurate depiction of the little frenchman, right?
This all, too, could be forgiven if there was a narrative on display here. It doesn’t have the depth off a real biography. Nor should it. That’s not the job of a movie. But it also shouldn’t be a rough outline of what a biography might be. It hits all the moments one might expect from a depiction of his life, but at no point do I get the sense that Napoleon is the protagonist of any kind of story. When he (spoiler) dies at Saint Helena, it doesn’t even qualify as an anti-climax because there was no series of events that begs for a climax of any kind.
*That alone will pretty much account for the nearly unanimous loathing from French critics.